Baraga, MI

Jul 12, 2024

The Michigan Outdoor Writers Association announced the 2024 inductees for the Outdoor Hall of Fame at its annual conference on May 18 at the Baraga Lakeside Inn.

The Outdoor Hall of Fame, which began in 2017, recognizes Michigan outdoors communicators and authors, conservation volunteers, public sector employees, inventors, entrepreneurs, and instructors who have inspired us in the outdoors. These candidates demonstrate statewide, regional, and national significance and have made an undeniable impact on outdoor sport over their lifespans. Previous inductees include Fred Bear, Tom Huggler, Larry Kelly, Buzz Lockman, Mort Neff, Eppinger Manufacturing Co., Mark Martin, and Kevin VanDam.

For 2024, the induction committee endorsed MOWA member and television personality Denny Geurink, author Steven Rinella, and outdoor artist and carver Jim Foote.

Denny Geurink is one of the most prolific writers and TV personalities in the country. He’s had over 4,000 articles published in dozens of newspapers and magazines during his 45 years in the industry. He’s a former Masthead Editor at Field & Stream magazine and Turkey Hunter magazine. It was his position at Field & Stream that led to an invitation from the Gorbachev government in 1991 to hunt the Soviet Union. This sparked nearly three decades as a guide and outfitter in Russia’s oft times dangerous and forbidding Siberian wilderness. He’s hunted and outfitted across all 11 time zones in Russia, pursuing everything from sheep and ibex to moose, wolves, and brown bears. He has been recognized as the number one brown bear hunter in the world for many years.

Steven Rinella is the founder and Chief Creative Officer of MeatEater, an outdoor lifestyle and media brand. Rinella was raised as a hunter, angler, and trapper in Michigan before beginning his career as a writer. He has written over a dozen books and audio originals dealing with hunting, fishing, wild foods, history, and human relationships to wildlife, including American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon. Rinella has multiple best sellers, including the #1 New York Times Best Seller, Catch a Crayfish, Count the Stars, which was his first children’s book. He is the host and creator of the television show, Meateater, and The MeatEater Podcast. Rinella is the recipient of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s Conservation Achievement Award.

Jim Foote, a lifelong Michigander, spent two careers expanding the public’s appreciation of, and participation in the vast outdoor recreational activities available in the state. As a wildlife biologist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources during the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, Jim felt his primary responsibility was to ensure that Michigan’s citizen’s had access and opportunities for such activities available to them. For example, during the 1970s he helped to expand the popularity of the Pte. Mouillee Waterfowl Festival in Southeast Michigan. In his spare time, he perfected
his craft as a decoy carver and wildlife art painter. He quit the department three years shy of full retirement to pursue his art, which allowed him to further share the outdoors in an additional way and to gain a national reputation as a “master” in the worlds of decoy carving and wildlife art. A dedicated supporter of conservation causes, Jim helped to raise over $4 million for the Ruffed Grouse Society.

Originally housed in Cadillac, Michigan, the MOWA Hall of Fame Committee elected to establish the new Hall of Fame display at the recently built Jay’s and Webber Wildlife and Education Center in Clare, Michigan.

Bog Vogel, current MOWA President, said this: “I am very proud to have been part of reestablishing the Outdoor Hall of Fame, providing current and past inductees recognition for their important contributions to outdoor communications and conservation.”

“We are grateful to the Poet family and their staff at Jay’s Sporting Goods for allowing us to honor our hall of fame members in their new building. The Webber Wildlife and Education Center is a must-see destination for outdoor

enthusiasts, and we are thrilled that our inductees will be on display in this amazing facility.”