As each of us continues to grow old and age in both life and fly fishing early pioneers and legends pass before us. Each has had a strong influence on how we don things in both fly tying and fly fishing. It is through these pioneers that we have shortened our own learning curves to attain some level of success and satisfaction in the sport.
In these days of social media, with quick rises to "success" and notoriety, we must tip our hat to these legends that became so influential through medias like magazines, books, newspapers, and cameos at shows and presentations. And these folks lasted, for a long, long time. Not in life, but in familiarity and presence, they were there, consistently. They met the obligation to the sport for the right reasons. Far too often today we raise people to the levels they may not have endured back in the good old days. Contributions, real ones, are far more than blogs, podcasts and You Tube videos.
There is a difference between innovators and influencers. We must always tip our baseball caps to those that pioneered through the early years of this sport and remember all that they contributed when they pass away. RIP to Page Rogers and all of the people who made fly fishing what it is today.