Below is more of the transcript of our conversation with Carrie Marsh and Bryan Whitledge from CMU’s Clarke Historical Library
David Nicholas:
I'm David Nicholas and this is Central Focus, a weekly look at research activity and innovative work from Central Michigan University students and faculty. A chemist and born researcher, a Northern Michigan excursion in the wee hours, an auto dealer from Saginaw. The more I listened back to my conversation with Carrie Marsh and Bryan Whitledge from CMU's Clarke Historical Library, the more I heard stories I wanted to share. This week, more on the life's work of the late Robert Kohrman…
But specifically, the collection that he started to build, what was the size of it when you came on board, and how much did it continue to grow for the rest of his life?
Bryan Whitledge:
CMU, since we acquired the Reed Draper collection, which is a large angling collection, and I believe that Professor Kohrman had a large influence in CMU acquiring that, he pushed for it, and Reed Draper was a car dealership owner out of the Saginaw region, but who had a fondness for very nicely bound and nice editions of sporting books from all over the world, but with a focus on the United Kingdom, so Scotland, England, and then also North America. And so, Professor Kohrman, instrumental in that coming here, that was here. He wrote an extensive inventory of all of the books in Reed Draper. And because of Reed Draper, CMU was definitely in Michigan second to none in terms of the fishing books that we had. With what Professor Kohrman acquired on his own and built on his own and then has since donated to the Clarke, it is a very world-class collection, certainly in North America among the top tier angling collections in the country. And so, he built that, but he also had so many other interests that spanned so many other things and those also get added. So, he was very big on the Lake County Star because Lake County Star, that newspaper mentioned a lot of anecdotes about final sightings of Grayling fish. He was really big on the Lake County Star. And so, if one goes to the Digmish News website, digmishnews.cmich.edu for historical newspapers, you will find the Lake County Star digitized for the period in time in which the final mentions of the Grayling are there. And he was instrumental in making sure that was on our radar when we were selecting newspapers to digitize.
DN:
We think of sport fishing on the largest of the Great Lakes, certainly. And we think about the great heritage and rituals surrounding the practices of fishing among our Native American tribes. And then there are little waterways tucked away, rivers and so forth that are best known for fly fishing. Did he ever, I mean, was there one particular one that he held as a favorite or as long as you were out there and actively getting out on the water to fish, was that his sort of comfort zone?
Carrie Marsh:
He had a real fondness for the North Shore of Lake Superior. He'd walked probably while he was fishing, maybe even the entire North Shore at one time or another, cumulatively over the years. He knew it very, very well. Yeah, I just, I don't, I'm not sure if there was one place he was fond of and he went back over and over again. He just loved it!
BW:
One of the stories he told me at one point was that he would get up before classes started, unbelievably early in the morning for the average person, we'd probably call it night. And he would drive up to the Platte River, Northwestern Michigan, fish from dawn until 7, 8 A.m., come back down and teach his classes. And that was a somewhat regular occurrence that when I heard that, I thought, okay, this is somebody who is, pardon the pun, hooked.
DN:
Very hooked, very dedicated, certainly!
Next time, other questions tackled by Robert Kohrman, the health of our waters, and fond memories of this unique life at Central Michigan University.
