Tom SchmueckerOwner of Wapsi since 1973Tom Schmuecker is a true pioneer of the fly tying industry. His contributions to fly tying have influenced every material we use and every fly tied in production today. In short, Tom Schmeucker is Wapsi (see Wapsi History). Tom's passion for fly tying started as a small boy in Iowa. At an early age he was fashioning makeshift poppers and flies in pursuit of bass and bluegill. His interest and passion for fly tying continued through college, although girls sometime interfered. While attending the University of Iowa, Tom married his wife, Ann, and soon after they graduated, they entered the family business of raising purebred Angus cattle and chickens. During those years, Tom's father was the President of the Iowa Poultry Association, and the farm had the perfect facilities for raising chickens. Tom's desire for procuring better fly tying hackle soon led him to produce genetic hackle. After 10 years of careful breeding, he produced a strain of fine cross-bred birds, ideal for fly tying. During that time, Tom became friends with Lacy Gee, the owner and founder of Wapsi Fly. Lacy later purchased hackles from Tom, and soon Tom was making more money selling genetically bred hackle than he was farming. One day in 1973 Tom came into the shop and Lacy asked him if he would be interested in buying the company. Tom saw this as an opportunity to pursue his passion full time and decided to buy the company. Soon after buying the company, Tom recognized that almost all commercial fly production would soon be done overseas, so he set the company's focus on producing fly tying materials for fly factories and for fly shops. At this point in time, there were no primary suppliers of fly tying materials for these markets. The large amount of work and difficulty processing natural materials coupled with the difficulty of sourcing textiles and synthetics in small amounts made this a daunting task. Tom's inventiveness, mechanical skills, and salesmanship allowed him to devise new and ingenious ways to purchase and process fly tying materials. Since there was no machinery made for processing and dyeing, he had to make his own. It took years to create the necessary tools and machinery as well as to learn the ropes of purchasing, dyeing and processing materials. Tom likes to joke that one of our two warehouse buildings contains all of the mistakes Wapsi has made over the years. In 1987, years of Tom's hard work almost came to an end as a result of a drastic fire that nearly destroyed the company. (See fire photos) As a testament to Tom's character, his friends in the community and within the fly fishing industry came to his aid in hopes of rebuilding Wapsi. Their encouragement and support persuaded Tom to rebuild and continue with his passion to produce the finest fly tying materials. In 1995, the Federation of Fly Fishers awarded Tom the Lee Wulff Award for his innovative work in fly fishing and his support of conservation efforts. Accolades continued in 1996 from the Federation of Fly Fishers Southern Council who awarded him their Fly Tyer of the Year award. Today, Tom is still the first person in the building every day and the last to leave every evening. During the weekends, Tom is busy tinkering in his workshop devising new machinery or processes of producing the finest fly tying materials. All of us who work at Wapsi recognize him as a kind patriarch whose work ethic motivates us to follow in his vision. |