Ed Mullady said “croppie” instead of “crappie” when referring to the popular panfish. The quirk made me smile.
He died Sunday at 94.
In his wake, Mr. Mullady left a hole in Kankakee River conservation. He left untouchable records for outdoors media. He left an extended family that remains active in the outdoors.
He left a hole the hearts of us who love the Kankakee.
In reflecting, I realized he was 40 years into his outdoors media career when I started doing the Sun-Times outdoors column. Yet, he took my phone calls every week.
He didn’t have to. The late John Husar was the colossus covering the outdoors for the Tribune. Yet, Mr. Mullady gave me time every week. We bounced ideas off each other, frankly and openly. Then those conversation diminished and stopped as his health declined the last decade.
“He was such a great storyteller,” lamented Rich Komar, who had Mullady present at the Tinley Park Fishing Show in the early years. “Calling him never was a two-minute call.”
I am not sure if there is an accurate count of the presentations Mr. Mullady did at shows as well as in the seminars he and his guide son Matt did. Or the thousands of anglers impacted.
His ‘’Big Outdoors Sportsman’s Letter’’ reports ran on three radio stations at least 5,725 times.
For 52 years, beginning in September, 1958, Mr. Mullady did the “Sportsman’s Letter,” a magazine/newsletter focused on hunting, fishing and conservation along the Kankakee. He did multiple editions of the Kankakee River Fisherman’s Atlas, maybe the quirkiest maps published in modern outdoors. Quirky yes, but damm meticulous and effective at showing landmarks and fishing spots.
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When my oldest brother and I did a two-day float 20 years ago down the Kankakee from the Indiana to Aroma Park, Mr. Mullady’s Illinois atlas was our only map.
He fought decade after decade against the long-proposed Peotone airport and for the Kankakee National Wildlife Refuge. He lived long enough for the first few acres of the refuge to come.
His induction speech in the 2011 class for the Illinois Outdoor Hall of Fame wasn’t the usual saccharine tripe about getting kids involved, but focused on grownup issues of conservation responsibility.
He fought dams, a reservoir and a dump to protect the Kankakee.
Mr. Mullady received the 2001 Izaak Walton League “Russell Sinclair News Media Award” for advocacy of wetland and wildlife conservation. The next year, he received the conservation award from the Chicagoland Fishing, Hunting, Travel and Outdoors Show.
“When I was first getting into this conservation thing, I was just another suburban tree-hugger type,” emailed Jim Sweeney, the Izaak Walton League advocate for the Kankakee. “It was guys like Ed Mullady, Howard Anderson, and other old-school conservationists that taught me about all the good conservation work that has been accomplished by the hunting and angling communities over the years. . . .
“He taught me a lot, the biggest lesson I think was to act on your convictions. It doesn’t do any good to wish the river well. You have to act on it. Ed is one of the main reasons the Kankakee is still one of the best angling and most biodiverse rivers in the Midwest.”
Mr. Mullady is survived by one brother, Lou Mullady; seven children, Rick Mullady (Yong), Terry Guymon, Pat Mullady (Pam), Matt Mullady (Teri), Tim Mullady (Joy), Monica Neill (Gary), and Chris Fisherkeller (Jim); and dozens of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
When safe in the future, the family will do a celebration of life.
In his honor, donations may be made to Friends of the Kankakee River, P.O. Box 13 Watseka, Il 60970 or go to friendsofthekankakee.org.
ILLINOIS HUNTING
When harvest numbers for the muzzleloader deer season come, I will post at chicago.suntimes.com/outdoors.
WILD THINGS
A snowy owl was been spotted at Rainbow Beach on the south lakefront where public interaction should not cause stress.
STRAY CAST
This Bears seasons feels like most of my deer seasons more than I care to admit.
