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The archery industry lost one of its biggest supporters and business leaders last week with the passing of Jerry (JD) Anderson, at the age of 88.

Before there were annual hunting expos in deer-rich Midwestern states; before a Bowhunting Trade Show or an Archery Trade Association Show; before seasonal Cabela's and Bass Pro Shops special sales events; before IBO or ASA shoots and before celebrities from bowhunting TV shows made appearances at dozens of venues annually - before anything, really - there was the Anderson Archery Show (International Bowhunters' Clinic) held every June in Grand Ledge, Mich.

For those of us long-in-the-tooth enough to remember or to attend "The Anderson Show," there's never been anything to quite compare to the excitement and buzz it created during its heyday in the 1970s and 80s. Tens of thousands of enthusiastic archers and bowhunters drove hundreds of miles to rub shoulders with "anybody who was anybody" in archery and to see, touch and purchase the latest bowhunting gear.

To best remember JD Anderson and his legacy, we thought we'd let those who knew him and attended his trademark event to share some of their recollections with Archery Wire readers. So appearing here following Mr. Anderson's obituary - in alphabetical order of the author - are the responses as received to the query we sent to selected industry veterans this week.


Obituary

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Jerry D. Anderson (JD) October 12, 1924 - August 12, 2013. JD's impact while on this earth is unparalleled. He shared his wisdom and values with young and old. He is remembered for his generosity, humor, intellect and contributions to so many lives. JD was born in St. Johns MI to Don and Thelma Anderson. JD was the quarterback of Grand Ledge's first undefeated football team and class president in 1941. JD served as a lieutenant in World War II, piloting the B-29 bomber. He served in the MI National Guard for many years after the war. After graduating from General Motors Institute, he founded Anderson Archery in 1952. He was a pioneer in worldwide distribution and retail sales of archery products. JD was past president and a Paul Harris fellow of the Grand Ledge Rotary Club, with 35 years of perfect attendance. He was former chief of the Grand Ledge volunteer Fire Dept. JD often volunteered with local charities and food banks. He was a generous supporter of MSU and a member of the football TV broadcast team for many years. He was recognized as an honorary alumnus and a varsity S club member of Michigan State University. A multi-faceted individual, JD was an engaging storyteller, avid outdoorsman, golfer, and taught each of his nine children to sail and downhill ski. JD was an avid collector of rare antiques, boats, cars and fire engines. He collected and assembled the only complete collection of Department 56 snow village. JD's greatest legacy is his large family, his nine children, Mike (Carol), Pat (Betsy), Michele (Shea) Bonhag, Bill (Dawn), Linda (Jim) King, Cindy (Evan), John (Mary Jo), Carol Jenks and Nancy (Rob) Deno; 27 grandchildren; 29 great grandchildren; his brother Jim Anderson; the mother of his children Shirley Toaz; and his wonderful caregivers, Helen Hautz, Rose Mills and Trudy Rose. A Memorial service was held on Saturday, August 17th at 11:00 am. At Holihan-Atkin Funeral Home, Grand Ledge, MI.

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The Anderson Archery Show was my first experience with 'hard core' archers! This would have been my early days at Saunders (Archery) and may have been my first experience at under the big top selling! I was a nobody, but I remember Fred Bear talking to me like I was royalty. It seems like camo was mainly (military surplus) items; then Jim Crumley and Sherry showed up. :-)

I just recall the consumers being 'eat up' with all the widgets we had at the Saunders booth!

I also recall the huge Anderson broadhead that I thought would probably kill anything it touched.

Marilyn Bentz
National Bowhunter Education Foundation


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I didn't personally know JD Anderson but I remember attending the Anderson Archery Show. I would characterize the show as an unbelievable archery "event." I can't remember a place where there were more consumers, manufacturers and celebrities in one area - focused on archery - than there were at this show. He truly had a vision and really knew how to put on a show.

Jack Bowman
President, Bear Archery

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We've been losing a few great men lately, a reminder of our collective aging and our inevitable mortality. Just like Tom Jennings and Gail Martin, Jerry was there from the start, when our sport was rudimentary, to say the least. Look at us now. I hope the younger generation of bowhunters and businessmen will be perceptive enough to acknowledge that people like Jerry, and all the way to Fred Bear, built from scratch what we now enjoy today as a vibrant sport and industry. The Anderson Archery Clinic (the name I remember it by...) was a solid and iconic event every year; and to this day I believe it has been missed. Jerry, like others of his generation, has left us with a void we will never again fill. We will miss you Jerry, and those who traveled those primal paths with you so long ago.

Stan Chiras
Bowhunting SuperShow

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I go way back with JD Anderson and the great Bowhunter Shows in Grand Ledge, Mich. Jack Witt and I called on them representing Ben Pearson Archery in the late fifties and early sixties, my competitive years.

I attended the event for many years representing Hoyt Archery as an exhibitor and performer with my archery routine.

This was the place to be part of the Archery Industry. All the powers of the Industry were represented with hands-on help - whatever your archery needs. New to the Industry and all the Old Timers were represented. Seminars, equipment set up or how fast was your bow could all be found there.

Most of Archery Greats were there to shake your hand, sign an autograph and give tips. Many are now members of the Archery Hall of Fame. New companies got their first exposure there and to this day continue to represent the Industry.

JD and the Anderson clan were real people who loved the sport and went out of their way to introduce it to the masses. All media magazines were represented. JD left no corner unturned.

The end of Anderson's clinic was a great blow to many of us. The event was looked forward to year after year. A learning experience you could find nowhere else.

Of all the places I have been and hunted or performed it is the Old Anderson Clinics where I gained a lifetime of information and met the greatest people on earth who I miss the most in my long career in Archery.

JD was a legion who paved the way for exposure and advancement to bowhunting and archery in general. I cherish my attendance plaque from the Anderson Clinic that hangs in my trophy room.

God rest his Jolly Soul and the wisdom he brought to our sport. He will always be remembered.

Ann Clark
Member, Archery Hall of Fame

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Anderson Archery's International Bowhunting Clinic at one time was THE happening place. Mid-summer wasn't complete without the Clinic. It set the table for expos like mine that followed. Things you could count on at Anderson's event: 1) rain, and more rain; 2) a lot of product sales, 3) a great exhibitor party at Dave Schroeder's farm the night before the event began; 4) crazy things happening, many of which are legendary but will never see print. It's better that way.

Ben Rogers Lee worked on his early humor routines at the exhibitor party. Keith Stuart demonstrated his new handgun by setting up concrete blocks next to Schroeder's shed and firing away from a too-close distance; concrete chips flew like shrapnel and everyone watching (already from a safe distance) hit the dirt. And on and on and on...

The event itself was exciting, fun and exhausting. J.D. was a gracious, genuine host. He and Sherwood Schoch put that event together. J.D. and the Andersons can be proud of being the forerunners they - and their event - were.

Glenn Helgeland
Editor - Archery World 1970-1980
Founding Editor - Archery Business - 1976-1980

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The Anderson show was the premier venue of its day to introduce and market archery products to bowhunters. It was a chance to get your products in front of 70,000+ bowhunters in a 3-day show that were ready to buy.

The Anderson show was one of the first shows we did in the late 1980's with McKenzie 3-D Targets and it helped make our product an instant success. If you were an archery products manufacturer you just had to be there. The Anderson family just flat-out knew archery and their customers.

Mike Ingold
VP Sales & Marketing
McKenzie 3-D Targets


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June of 1978 was my first visit to the Anderson Archery Show/Shoot in Grand Ledge Michigan. Myself, and five other member of the Deep River Bowmen's club in Valparaiso, Ind. headed north to take part in one of the most anticipated events in America. There were seminars by all the big names in Archery, all the folks you read about in the magazines were in attendance. I met Tom Jennings, Jud Cooney, Chuck Adams, Bob & Terry Ragsdale, George Chapman, Rex Darlington, M.R. James, Blair Peterson the list seemed endless. Tom Nelson worked behind the counter in those days.

One of my fondest memories was standing in line to receive an autographed picture of Fred Bear. The line was long and the weather was HOT. They had asked Fred to excuse himself several times to proceed with a seminar he was supposed to give. He finally told the folks trying to hurry him along that he wasn't leaving till we ALL got our autographed picture. Fred apologized and said he would personalize the picture later, I never made it back, but I still have my autographed picture!

Pete Shepley recognized me and all of the guys shooting PSE bows, even though I was a punk nobody kid, Pete made me feel like a Million Dollar Dealer and thanked me for shooting PSE. Terry Ragsdale was busy rewriting the record books at that time and was one of the coolest men I ever met. He was so laid back, easy to talk to, funny, and one heck of a competitor.

For all of us bowhunters, waiting on the Anderson Archery Show was worse than little kids waiting on Christmas. The anticipation was unbearable, the experience was indescribable, and the memories lasted a lifetime.

Paul Penix
PSE Regional Sales Manager Michigan



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Back in the early 70's I was a sales rep calling on AAC. I was also an actuary in the then-20 year-old Pennsylvania Bowhunters Festival. In a conversation with JD's son Mike, then General Manager of AAC, I suggested we take a good look at the PBHF and use it as a starting model for a commercial venture (PBHF is a County run, all volunteer non profit corp).

Mike, like his father JD, was creative-minded and quickly recognized the possibilities of such an event. Mike visited with me at the next PBHF and we put together an idea to take to JD. JD quickly grasped the idea as well and agreed to invest in a trial run. AAC was a family business, so much so that of JD and Shirley Anderson's nine children, along with spouses, most worked for AAC in some capacity. We then held several meetings at JD's home, piecing together the outline for the initial IBHC. Besides family members, there was also Dave Schroeder, a managing staff member, and myself. We wrestled with a name for most of an afternoon first thinking National-this-or-that, but because AAC drew heavily from Canada we selected International Bowhunters Clinic as its title.

It was a well-structured game plan. Our mission plan was to provide information, education, and recreation for the archery industry's consuming public, exactly what our model, the PBHF offered. Only we did it on a larger, more commercial scale. We wanted to involve the industry, and we did. We scheduled the best-recognized industry personalities as speakers and to provided educational seminars. Of course creative marketing was JD and family's expertise and they promptly went to work at a high-level promotion plan and of course history proves the success of the plan.

Some other things we need to mention for all in the industry was the early popular clambakes held for industry folks the Thursday evening before the clinic opened. Soon it became too large for the clambake. I had been hauling a trunk full of clams in from the Chesapeake Bay, but not enough for the larger and growing crowds. So the "clam bake" was adjusted to a huge pig roast held just outside Grand Ledge at Dave and Linda Schroeder's farm, where a big top tent was set up to handle the industry crowd. They were delightful parties where all the industry gathered.

For me personally, I have only the highest regard for the warm and loving reception always provided me by JD, his wife Shirley, Mike, his wife Carol, and every member of the Anderson family and their staff. You may also recall the Andersons created the International Bowhunters Hall of Fame and each year elected members. I proudly and humbly state they honored me as the first inductee in that HOF in 1984, along with Fred Bear and Tom Jennings, for my participation in the creation of the clinic. Just being associated with the Anderson Family is the highlight of my 40 years in the industry. No one drew more pleasure from the clinics than I.

I miss the clinics, JD, and every other Anderson. I sincerely love them all.

Sherwood Schoch


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When I was working for PSE and later Barnett International in the late 1970's, early 80's, The Anderson Show was THE show to be at. Not only was the show a huge success and drew a tremendous number of archers, it was hosted by good people who went out of their way to make us all feel at home. The Anderson family and 'Big Dave' Schroder set the standards that all future consumer shows would draw from. Then, after the show there was the barbeque at JD's where all the exhibitors could rub elbows and relax. JD will be missed.

Rich Walton
Hawk Associates/Bowhunting.net/Bowhunting Adventures Magazine


- Compiled by The Archery Wire's J.R. Absher

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