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I grew up as a kid being privileged to have outdoors programs on television that were entertaining as well as educational. They were my anchor for late Sunday afternoons, marking the end of a weekend and winding down from the adventures of the day. They really enticed my eagerness for the outdoors.

The first program seen was the American Sportsman with Curt Gowdy. Each week the late Mr. Gowdy would take me on an adventure across the world, most often hunting or fishing. Each week he’d bring a well known guest along and work more as a guide or mentor, making the celebrity more normal and common thus allowing viewers to bond with them as one.

Curt Gowdy didn’t always score on every trip either. His presentation made the adventure the excitement. The taking of game remained secondary and a treat above and beyond the expectations of the trip.

He was and will always be remembered as the consument sportsman of high ethics and tradition.

The second show on Sunday was Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom with hosts Marlin Perkins and Jim Fowler.

Each week the duo would work a scenario on film of either rescuing wildlife or teaching viewers about animal habitat and nature. Every show was exciting although I often wondered why Fowler seemed to draw the short straw on each episode, one time wrestling an alligator or dodging a charging rhino while Marlin Perkins narrated a segway into an insurance commercial. Regardless of who did what, they made you feel like you were there and I carried each adventure with me to bed.

As I grew older, other programs came on television that were more localized, perhaps the broadest of which was statewide with Michigan Outdoors.

I became a regular viewer of the show not long before it changed from being hosted by Mort Neff and Howard Shelly. Their presentation was second to none and new hosts Fred Trost and Bob Garner were a suitable replacement for a while.

Once Garner left, Fred Trost took on a different presentation, almost adversarial towards regulations and negative about outdoors sports. Trost eventually went out of business. It was then another show came to be that would hook me to declare every Monday night as sacred for TV viewing.

In 1981 a young reporter from WLUC-TV 6 in Marquette came on the air with a special show - Discovering. In it, the host, Buck LeVasseur took us on tours of places we hadn’t seen before that just happen to be in our own back yard. He also provided coverage of seasonal events, mostly regarding hunting and fishing, that to this day remain the best in outdoors entertainment.

It wasn’t until 1989 that I had the chance to meet Buck. It was a time when UP Whitetails Association had just got started and he’d been out with us to cover projects, including the exclusive Trap-Tag-Release deer study that determined the true summer/winter migration patterns of the whitetail population. Up to then as a viewer, I’d jealously envisioned myself being reincarnated as him, having the opportunity to enjoy all there is outdoors - and get paid for it! That was until I spent some time afield with him and realized how much work went into creating a program such as his. After that, you couldn’t pay me enough to go through what he did to make a quality product for viewing.

Since that time, I’ve grown more in appreciation of the man and established a friendship that means very much to me yet today. Buck continues to excel in his work as an outdoors videographer, second to none in content and quality. It is his style of presentation that helps me stay focused in my writing and radio production work.

He was honored by Safari Club International by the Flint Regional Chapter as media person of the year and according to Ron Lundberg from SCI, no one does it better outdoors than LeVasseur. I agree!

Having had many opportunities to sit down and visit with Buck after a shoot or upon the completion of a public meeting, he often times would regale those of us with him with stories of trips featuring comedic anecdotes that could not be presented on film. His avid recall made you feel like you were there when it happened and Buck always has had a way of ending the story with the same emphasis of a punch line in a good joke, another side of him not many get to see.

Buck has always remained the consummate professional behind the camera, not letting his personal views enter into the story although he does editorialize the need for involvement when issues involving the outdoors are at hand.

Throughout his career, LeVasseur has shown respect for the patriarchs of the outdoors and encouragement for the nimrods just embarking on their choice of adventure. He has supported the dis-abled and exploited programs that reach out to mentor the youth. He has also made history by capturing events as they happened, none to surpass the re-introduction of moose here in the UP as they arrived from Ontario Canada.

We’re lucky to have a Buck LeVasseur in our midst. I hope he has the energy and ability to continue on his mission of providing a true depiction of our outdoors heritage as he has for these last thirty years. He is an equal if not greater than those other outdoors celebrities I recall, because he is one of us, a genuine Yooper.