June 2018 Newsletter

Florida State Taxidermist s Association, Inc. FSTA Board: President: Trina Pritchard 352-567-1521 Vice President: Jared Mallard 904-483-7568 Secretary/ Theresa Durham 863-697-0914 Treasurer: Charlotte Lord 352-542-7337 Board of Directors Dale Buffenmyer 352-317-3831 Barney Durham 386-328-7515 Jesse Kelly 904-769-6699 DC Simms 352-2322731 Scott Statton 904-463-5355 Ken Jones 813-312-6725 Jeff Whitlock 386-547-2139 KenBarrow 386-214-2701 To All My Fellow Taxidermists and Friends, To all members of the FSTA I would like to thank you so much for a wonderful show, and to see all of your smiling faces again was amazing. I would like to thank all of our board members for all of there hard work that they put into this organization. I know that I can t do this without them. The 2019 Convention will be held at the Ramada Inn and Conference center in Lakeland, Florida on February 7-9 th, 2019. One of the recommendations that was given to me was that we need to maintain a permanent facility and create stability in this association. I shared this with the board and we have decided that the Ramada fulfills all of our needs. The hotel has many things to offer us on the I-4 corridor with all the amusement parks within 40 minutes either way of the facility for families that choose to make this a full vacation. The hotel number is 863-688-8080. The room rates will stay the same at $89.95 per night. The schedule of events will be emailed as soon as possible. Our next Presidents challenge will be a full body coyote mount. This should be interesting for all you fur lovers out there. If you are unable to find a coyote, please reach out to your fellow taxidermists and see if they may have one. Please join us on Facebook. We look forward to your comments if you need to contact anyone, please don t hesitate to call. Set your mind on things above Colossians 3:2 Sincerely, Trina Pritchard

A letter from Father George I am sending you and the members of the FSTA a few random and rambling reflections on my life, as it pertains to my involvement with taxidermy. I grew up in Saint Petersburg and lived just a block from the Coffee Pot Bayou and one block from the newly pumped up landfill along North Shore Drive. Our neighbor was Dr. Holmes. He was on the staff at the American Museum of natural History in New York City, but spent the winter months at his home on North Shore Drive. He invited me into his home one day. I was perhaps 10 years old and I was immediately fascinated by his studio. Like many scholars, it was very, very, unorganized, jars filled with formaldehyde and animal parts, mounted birds on the walls, a few fish mounts, human skulls and assorted bones, and of course, a jumble of books and papers. He was one of the archaeologists, along with Dr. Stirling, who were doing research on the famous Weedon Island Burial Mound. He sensed my juvenile interest and said, Just go across the street to the new landfill and look around. I did, and I found giant shark teeth, some as big as a playing card, manatee bones, and darkened foot bones of horses, almost petrified. The bug bit me! I was hooked on being like him, doing research and investigating the unknown, and learning taxidermy. But at that time, the 1920 s. taxidermy was a very secret sort of profession. I went to the Encyclopedia Britannica and tried to find out more but there was very little information that a youth of my age could comprehend. Items like the work of the great Carl Akley and Louis Jonas at the New York Museum were astounding. But again, I was bitten hard and I wanted to learn more about taxidermy. There was one taxidermist in Saint Petersburg and I recall one day especially. I was standing near his yard where he was preparing chemicals to tan a bobcat skin. He chased me away. About all I learned from the encyclopedia was how to make arsenic soap and how to stuff a skin with excelsior or dry moss. But one day I found a roadkill squirrel. This was my chance! I skinned it but did not really know how to flesh it properly and of course, as a boy, I certainly could not buy arsenic. So, I used salt. At that time, Borax was unknown to me, so you can imagine how my squirrel turned out with just salt. Later I tried another squirrel and did not use salt. It looked like a scarecrow. At this time, I was big into Boy Scouts and one of the merit badges was taxidermy. I don t recall what I produced to earn that badge, but I did. The only item I can recall was tanning a woodchuck skin with Fels Naptha and Octagon soap. My efforts in learning taxidermy, more or less, went into a decline. I continued with other scouting lore, camping, cooking outdoors and the hundred other items that the Scout manual indicated to continue on your way to the rank of Eagle Scout. I hit that at age 16. But now, I was out of school and entered the Seminary to become a priest. So my career as a taxidermist was more or less over.

I was now 26 years old and was assigned to Orlando, St Augustine, Miami, the Pastor in Ocala, and finally Pastor in Venice, Florida. It was there that another man entered my life, George Hott. That definitely put me back into taxidermy fever. He had been on the staff at the Museum of natural history also, as well as the famous Pfleuger Taxidermy Studio in Miami. He was more or less retired, but set out to teach me. The fever really returned as I learned the skill in fleshing, preserving, mounting, etc. Then I heard about the NTA. I joined but did not at the time become involved in any competitions or exhibits. Then I joined the FSTA and was now off in high gear. Under the tutelage of Curt Bossie, Bo Reed, Tony Gilyard, Gene Dobbs, Ratso Pennington, Mike Kirkhart, and others, I really got into taxidermy in a big way. Hogs became my specialty mainly because I had the advantage of some 30,000 acres along the Myakka River. Hogs were everywhere! I brought at least one hog, sometimes several, to every FSTA competition, plus at the NTA and the World competitions. With mentors such as Curt Bossie, Tony Gilyard, Bo Reed, and many, many, other great taxidermists, I entered into the big stuff like moose, grizzly, and black bear full body mounts, and fighting hogs with appropriate habitat vegetation. After leaving Venice, I moved to Citrus County as Pastor for more than 30 years. I had a fine little building for taxidermy work and did probably 90% of my competition mounts while there. I stopped my work in taxidermy about the year 2008. I cannot fully or adequately express my gratitude for the warmth and fellowship that I enjoyed with my many taxidermy friends. I always consider myself as an amateur. I never would accept any specimen for mounting without pay. I would at times, present a deer or hog head to a special person as a present. As I now approach my 100 th birthday, I often spend my reveries recalling the happy times I spent with the roster of great taxidermy friends I knew during all these years. I send my prayers for all of you and will ask God s blessings on each of you and your families. Sincerely, Father George Cummings

FSTA 2018 Convention

2018 Schedule of Events Thursday, February 8th 1:00 pm To???? Setup Backboards (everyone's help is appreciated) 3:00 pm To???? Supplier Setup 4:00 pm To 7:00 pm Pm Registration/ 6:00 pm To???? Seminar Friday, February 9th 8:00 am To 12:00 pm Registration - Mounts Accepted 9:00 am To 11:00 am Seminar- 10:00 am To 12:00 pm Supply Area Open 12:00 pm To 1:00 pm Lunch Hour- Mounts will not be accepted during lunch 1:00 pm To 5:00 pm Registration - Mounts Accepted 1:00 pm To 5:00 pm Supply Area Open 1:00 pm To 3pm Seminar 3:30 to 5:30 6:00 pm To???? Friday Night Member meeting / Saturday, February 10th 7:30 am* To 9:00 am Late Registration (No Mounts Accepted After 9am) 8:00 am To 11:00 am 9:00 am To 12:00 pm Supply Area Open (Supply Area Breakdown 12pm) 12:00 pm To 1:00 pm Lunch 1:30 pm To 4:00 pm Competition room open 4:00 pm To 5:00 pm Breakdown (everyone s help is greatly appreciated) 6:30 pm To???? Banquet and Auction Judges Birds Mammals, Game heads, and Deer fish