Whitlock exhibit to be unveiled at Wonders of Wildlife

SPRINGFIELD, Missouri — The American Museum of Fly Fishing will dedicate an exhibit featuring Dave Whitlock at 6 p.m., Oct. 2, at the Wonders of Wildlife National Museum and Aquarium, 1 Bass Pro Drive, in Springfield, Missouri.

The AMFF executive director and board of trustees will host a reception with hors d’oeuvres and drinks, and a group of fly-tiers will demonstrate some of Whitlock’s original designs beginning at 5 p.m.

Whitlock’s world was based on fish – angling, speaking, painting, writing, teaching, photographing, casting, fly-tying and even inventing (check out the revolutionary Whitlock-Vibert egg box). He won numerous awards and he’s in every fishing or outdoor hall of fame, including the Arkansas Outdoor Hall of Fame. Fly-Fisherman magazine named him to the “Mount Rushmore of Fly-Fishing” with Joe Brooks, Lee Wulff and Lefty Kreh in 2021.

Whitlock, a native of Oklahoma, and his wife, Emily, an Arkansan, lived for many years on the White River near Mountain Home. In 2005 they moved to Welling, Oklahoma. Whitlock died there Nov. 24, 2023, at 88.

Despite childhood health problems, Whitlock found his artistic talent at a young age.

When he saw his first fly rod in an L.L. Bean catalog in the 1940s and asked his grandfather what it was, he was told fly-fishing was a “rich man’s sport.”

“Now, fast forward to 1980,” Whitlock told Voices of Oklahoma in a 2019 interview. “And here was a handicapped kid (who) discovered fly-fishing through the L.L. Bean catalog. And in 1980, I became the head of the L.L. Bean fly-fishing product line.”

Whitlock graduated from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, with degrees in chemistry, physics and biology before becoming a research chemist. He left that career behind in the 1960s.

For questions about the exhibit, contact Bill Butts, bill.butts@sbcglobal.net, at the AMFF. For more about Whitlock, visit davewhitlock.com.