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 DirectorsDale 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 7-9th, 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 100th 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

FSTA 2018

Convention

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 –

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 /

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

2018 Schedule of Events

Thursday, February 8th

Friday, February 9th

Saturday, February 10th

Birds

Mammals, Game heads, and Deer

fish

Judges