Vernon Gallup, 92
Vernon Gallup was the greatest fly fisherman you've never heard of. He had a gift for catching trout in swift streams and releasing them for another day. That sixth sense let him out fish the anglers you have heard of.
Vernon Gallup died Nov. 28, 2023, after Alzheimer's disease erased that brilliance. He was 92.
The mild-mannered Labelle, Idaho, native was born Sept. 22, 1931, to parents Ellis Strong Gallup and Rosa Love Gallup.
He raised chickens and pigs for 4-H competitions but traded farm life for prose, graduating in 1954 with a master's in English Literature from the University of Idaho in Moscow.
He married his college sweetheart in 1953 and uprooted her to far-flung Ketchikan, Alaska, after graduation to teach high school in the territory. Educating teenagers, he quickly learned, was not his passion.
He turned to accounting, taking over the books at Power City Electric in Spokane, a position that led him to commit one of the few acts of rebellion in his life. He and several colleagues abruptly quit in 1967 to start a competing enterprise to electrify the Pacific Northwest. They formed Wire Installation Contractors (WICO), which built high-voltage power lines as far north as Boundary Dam, along the Pend Oreille River, to the suburbs of Phoenix, Arizona.
He consulted the Saudi Arabian government on erecting their own electrical infrastructure.
The new job allowed a little leisure. If not working, Vern would be fishing. He took fledgling fishermen under his wing, including his son-in-law, to teach them a thing or two about which feathery flies to use and where to cast them for fish. He kept a rod and spare dry flies in the car, just in case.
His passion for angling became something more as Vern saw the world and met other fishing enthusiasts. He reportedly out-fished master fisherman Ernest Schwiebert. He hitched rides on helicopters to access remote waterways. He gleaned favor from English landowners to fish their private streams. When he and a fishing pal got tired of asking for permission, they bought 31 square miles of land in Argentina to fish the Arroyo Pescado (a spring creek) whenever they wanted.
He moved to Bigfork, Montana, to be closer to wilder rivers. He returned to Yellowstone National Park year after year to fish the surrounding waters where he first learned.
Collecting rare fishing books was Vern's obsession. His treasured collection took up one bookcase at first but slowly amounted to a cavernous den and basement attached to his Bigfork cabin known as, "The Fly Fisherman's Library," one of the world's largest collections of books on fly fishing.
He invited angling enthusiasts to peruse 21,292 of his prized books, the last count taken in 2015. A first edition of Izaak Walton's, "The Compleat Angler," published in 1653, was the heart of his collection. He purchased it from another collector in 1978 for a cool $4,370. It's now valued at more than $200,000.
A portion of the books, including Walton's 17th century literary classic, live on at Washington State University in "The Gallup Collection." Other books were gifted to Montana State University.
He was preceded in death by sisters and brothers, Grace Forsyth, Ellen Genta, Darrell Gallup, Pearl and Earl Gallup; son, Neil Gallup; and wife, Joan Gallup.
He is survived by two daughters, Corinne (Eric) Hensley and Michele Wheeler; two granddaughters, Kimberly (Mike) Berlin and Nicole Hensley; two great-granddaughters, and a wealth of books that WSU librarians are digitizing for future anglers to read.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 10, at the Hennessey Funeral Home in Spokane with a burial to follow at Spokane Memorial Cemetery in Spokane, Washington.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Alzheimer's Association. Many kind thanks to the help and care of Vern at Pine Ridge Alzheimer's Special Care Center and Horizon Hospice.
A celebration of life will occur in Rexburg, Idaho, in the summer of 2024.