Quote:
Originally Posted by bart
Thanks for the info. For some reason I remember someone saying that his name was Eagle, but I don't remember him being "rotund" as you so eloquently put it  I was down at the east end if that makes any difference. I grew up admiring surfcasters and the pioneers within the industry, so I felt like I had met fishing royalty |
I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that Eagle's given name was Stan Jr. Many, many years ago, he was walking across the Sagamore Bridge, when he claimed that an eagle's feather fell out of the sky and landed on his head. He took this as a sign from the heavens to explore his Indian roots, and took on an unpronounceable Wampanoag name. So people started calling him Eagle instead of the new name he chose, and he adopted it. He kind of always "marched to a different beat". I heard that he had a stroke and passed away a year or so ago. He put on a lot of weight later in life, and walked with a cane--suitably inscribed with Indian artwork. He may have shared his dad's interest (and skill) in woodcarving.
The third son, John, was the one that Stan designated as his lure making successor. But John was always more interested in fishing than in spinning wood. He sold the company twice. Once in the early 80s to a mail order place in Falmouth called The Tackle Box, and then finally in the late 1980s to Jim Griecci. Who, like John, was always more interested in his other interests, like skiing, than turning plugs. Then the current owners bought the company. John moved to Florida, and now makes custom bowling balls, or so I've heard. He also caught the distance casting bug. I think he still competes, though he never got quite as good as Ron Arra and Big Dave.