Speaking of John Rook.... pics added starting page 1

[Terry Green]

I met him at Cloverdale 2003, just months after I started Tradgang, and was taken aback at his stories.  I sat and listened for 2 hours at least.

Then later I heard that he had someone read Tradgang to him.  Double wow. I was blown away...

Anyhow, anyone still left around here that can share some thoughts, memories or stories of John from back in the day?

[Mike Yancey]

I hunted with John a couple of times in Texas. We were with Curtis Keller on two different places. One time Gary Davis was there and got the bright idea that he wanted John to make a flemish twist bow string then kill a pig with it. Poor John was up all night with Gary teaching him how to make the string!
We also ran into each other at events all over the country after that before he passed. Great guy!

[Jack Denbow]

Once at a PBS event John and I were sitting around and talking telling hunting stories. John said we need to go hunting together and I said that would be great.
John said I would have to be his spotter, I said that would be fine, but he would have to be my spotter. We laughed till our sides hurt.
Unfortunately, John left us before we got to hunt together. I sure do miss him.
Jack

[Roger Norris]

I never met him but I was amazed at his stories, and his effort. Awesome inspiration....

[Cory Mattson]

I knew John. I miss him. Couple a things.
John was 100% dedicated to traditional bow hunting and I know you hear this guys but he was unbelievable and NO EXCUSES!!
Johns passion for hunting blew my mind. I love hunting but I’m not sure I have what it takes to continue with the path life threw at him. He LOVED to hunt!!!
100% generous of spirit - ALWAYS
100% gentleman- ALWAYS
When I saw Terry mention John it hit me pretty hard. He had closer friends and I hope some post. He had a lifetime friend who was his eyes hunting. Lenny is a big part of the stories to come from others.
But get this. I went to the Eastern Traditional one year and I showed up to help man a booth. It was morning. It was crowded. There was much bustling and activity!!
John sits down next to me and I lean towards him to tell him who (I am) - who it was and he says “hey Cory how’s it going”
!!!???!!!??? Are you kidding me he heard my voice addressing someone else IN A CROWD and he knew exactly who I was!
Guys we talked but over the phone mostly and spread over months at a time.
I remain completely floored by Johns abilities.
Every time working with John or hanging out was a blessing.
Another time he gives me a picture of him with a deer. And taking game with a bow was not a stunt but a regular occurrence. Sure it was tough but I never heard John complain or make excuses - NEVER
So he gives me the picture. I keep it.
Couple years later the compound crossbow lobby tries to use Cripples as a way to slide into bow season. As it turned out the North Carolina Bowhunters Association decides to fight. Calls are made and I am formally asked to address the state senate.
I went.
I talked and tried to keep it brief.
As I wrapped up I told the senate none of them knew enough about bow hunting to be making decisions about bow hunting.
I told the senate they knew even less about people with handicaps or other life struggles.
Then I showed that picture of John with his deer - killed with a self bow.
Then I told them he was blind!
Talk about shutting it down!! They knew in that instant a bunch of goofballs had been romancing the handicap citizens like carpetbaggers trying to see what they could get.
The senate immediately “moved” to NOT allow the compound crossbow and “duly noted” that hunting opportunities for handicapped citizens needed more review.
John won the battle for NCBA that day
He won so resoundingly they were scared off for 15 years
One more
Back when I made more money I sent Christmas cookies to my hunting buddies and their families. A way to say thanks for the campfire once a year. Simple enough.
I ended up talking to his wife, can’t remember if I called them or they called me. She went on and on about how much John appreciated the gift. Nice visit and done right?
No couple a days I get a Hand Written Thank You note written by John!
The most legible almost scribble you’ve ever seen.
Emotional now thinking about it.
John was a man of Faith. I miss him and look forward to seeing him again.
He’ll know my voice
And I’ll know his
<><
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[hawkeye n pa]

John was a truly amazing man in all regards. He made a lasting impression on me and my life is richer because of a casual "hello John" many years ago.

 Very nice write up Cory. 

RIP John.

[Mighty Big Country]

Wow!  Cory nailed it!!  I wanted to add a few things.  John Rook was way beyond an inspiration for many of us.  I spent a good amount of time with Jerry Pierce back in the 90's (A unique benefit of self-unemployment).  Jerry and John would usually man the PBS booth together at the big traditional shoots of the day like Great Lakes Longbow, Cloverdale and ETAR.  John also attended many of the PBS Banquets with either Lenny Rock or his buddy, Larry.  I got to know John through Jerry.  Every time I ran into John, I would say, "Hi it's Mark and John would always say, I know".  I was always blown away and the first few times unbelieving.  When we put together United Bowhunters of Illinois in 95' and our first banquet in February of 96', I contacted John to be the inaugural keynote speaker.  John gladly accepted my offer and was driven over to Illinois by Lenny.  Everyone was floored and inspired after hearing him talk. 

Jerry built John one of his prized Choctaw recurves.  He told me he took more care in picking out the wood combination than any bow he ever built with his intricate Pierce Points.  Somebody asked Jerry why he would do that when John was blind and couldn't see them.  Jerry simply replied, "Are you sure?"  John reciprocated by building Jerry a self bow.  It was one of Jerry's prized possessions until the day he passed.  Jerry's wife, Bettie, crocheted John's wife Barb one of her beautiful afghan's because she felt many people forgot about her support of John. 

Hopefully, Tim Finley will weigh in as he has many experiences hunting with John and spending time with him at ETAR.  Many don't realize how accomplished a bowhunter John was before losing his sight.  He was just an unbelievable man!  As Cory mentioned, John was a follower of Jesus Christ.  I know he will recognize my voice.

[Ryan Rothhaar]

John was one of the good guys. Hugely inspirational, always positive, and made the world a better place by being here.

He and Dad used to hang around quite a bit. I remember John when he had vision in one eye and wore a patch on the other. He had a very rare degenerative eye disease, and lost his vision over a period of years, knowing it was inoperable. Imagine that. I always wondered how I would handle that. Or if I would even be able to. Imagine a depressing situation....

John hunted and killed many animals both before and after losing his sight. He was an excellent field archer before losing sight, and Dad always said that his fantastic shooting form is what made it possible to hunt while blind. The aimer would line him up, but John could execute the shot.

John was always a good sport, Jim Emerson used to tease him by rotating his plate during meals...he knew what was where, but rotating 90 degrees threw off the meat vs the veggies etc. He wouldn't let on, and just continue eating. We had an old video from bear camp where John killed a bear and he was feeling it....someone guiding him..."You know what these are??" "Yep, he's a boar!"...stuff like that.

John always kind of treated me as a son and I still have letters he wrote to me as I was growing up, after he was blind.

A great guy, wonderful ambassador for archery and bowhunting, and a huge loss to the traditional community.

R

[Gun]

I met John at the first PBS banquet. Ended up sitting across the table from him at one of the meals. As has been said, great guy. I had him autograph my weekend program, thinking later "that was dumb". We wrote letters back and forth for a while. His wife would type as he dictated. She put a note in some saying how much John appreciated hearing from fellow hunters.
Barry Wensel will chime in with some good stories I'm sure. 

[Russell Southerland]

This is great guys.  Thanks for sharing.  We need more of these type threads here as we must not forget those that came before us. "He had someone read Tradgang to him". Wow, just wow.

[Tim Finley]

John was a great guy and a  close friend for many years . I would fly in to Pittsburg from N.D. rent a car and drive to Johns house stay over and go to ETAR the next day I think we did this over 20 times we also hunted in Manitoba and Texas together. Theres so many  stories of our times with John and others friends most funny as John had a good sense of humor .
  Lenny Rock was Johns best friend he had many stories and pulled lots of tricks on him we all took advantage of Johns sense of humor he loved it . John seemed to be accident prone before and after blindness with a few broken bones and a car accident. He  fell while getting in a tree stand while hunting with Lenny and tore part of his ear lose Lenny sewed it back on in camp. I broke his nose while bear hunting We had a very aggressive sow come into the bait, I had a run in with her before she had three cubs . She was being nasty so I decided to get down and get John out of there before dark we got out to the walking trail and headed for the four wheeler with her right behind us all the way, she was huffing like crazy, John was scarred to death, as I looked over my left shoulder at her with John on my right arm I walked him right into a birch tree right between the eyes I apologized and he said no problem its happened before and it will happen again.
   John never slept much I think it had to do with being blind sometimes he only slept a couple of hours a night. In bear camp we had outhouses behind the cabin so john had to have someone take him back when he had to go they finally ran a rope to the outhouse so he could find it himself . Well they got the idea to put a vey long rope and wind it out through the woods the first time he used it they could hear way back in the bush ALRIGHT YOU GUYS .
  Lenny is still alive but all the rest of that group is gone they were a fun group I miss them all. I think Johns name will go on for a long time .
  John was highly intelligent it seemed as if he heard something once or read about it he remembered it forever . What really amazed me was all the people that would come to our booth and many he hadn't heard from in 15 or 20 years and he would instantly know who they were by the sound of their voice and remember everything about them .
  Im glad you put him in the hall of fame he would be honored .....Tim

[Jerry Gille]

John was the keynote speaker at the United Bowhunters of Illinois banquet a couple times. I had the privilege of knowing him through that capacity. We used to communicate by sending each other cassette tapes. As has been said, he was a hardcore traditionalist. The last time I saw him he had just fallen down some stairs and was a little busted up. He was riding with my wife and me to go out for dinner and was telling us the story of the fall.  I asked him if he was going to be healed up in time to bowhunt that year and he said he expected to.  He said, "Jerry, I will hunt with a traditional bow as long as I can and when I can't any longer, I will quit hunting."  He never made excuses to take shortcuts nor would he accept anything less than what he considered true bowhunting to be. John Rook is the standard I hold myself and my bowhunting colleagues to. He is my personal bowhunting hero - bar none. The process continued to be more important than the kill even after going blind.  Also as was said, he was a true gentleman. I miss him too and wish I would have known him better than I did. He had a way of making people around him feel like they were the special ones.  There just aren't enough like him around.

[Barry Wensel]

I'd like to contribute to this thread about John Rook but I don't know how to do it. I always knew John was special, as the above testimonials show. Thankfully I was impressed enough that I started and kept a file on John. It contains all kinds of correspondence between us; magazine articles; newspaper clippings; personal letters; thank you cards; programs, etc. I even have a copy of the "To Whom It May Concern" application letter I personally wrote to the Safari Club International Special Hunter Award program to nominate John for this honor ( which he won). That letter in itself would just show the tip of the iceberg of John's life. It's two full pages, single-spaced written about John in August 1997. I'd be willing to re-type it tomorrow if people want because I think it's important for posterity but it'll be long. Or I can just list the highlights of this unbelievable man. Let me know. One very unfortunate fact is after John returned from his Australian bowhunt, he sent me photos of his den and his kill photos from that recent Australian adventure. I have a note stating I sent John's den photos back to him on 1/16/98 but SCI misplaced his kill photos as of then.
  I'm getting ahead of myself. SCI ended up sending John to Australia with his bow on an all-expense paid bowhunt of a lifetime. You'll have to realize it's been over 25 years so the times/dates/ and results may not be perfectly correct. But if I recall correctly, not only did our blind bowhunter excel, he came home with a couple world record bow kills.
   Another possession I have in my file is a 60 minute cassette tape John made for me after his Australian hunt. It's dated March 1998. I've obviously listened to it but it's been 25 years ago. It was pretty much a blow-by-blow recap of his whole Australian bowhunt. The cassette appears in perfect condition as I stored it in a hard-plastic case. But I am reluctant to play it for fear of it falling apart. Similar to my old Roger Rothhaar cassettes from the early '70s, I need to take them in somewhere to have them professionally copied digitally. I'm glad this thread was started. Some of the young bowhunter of today have no idea what guys like John Rook did for our sport. Stay tuned. BW

[Terry Green]

Fabulous Barry, just fabulous.  Give us what you got, the more the better.  This stuff is important to many and Trad Bowhunting.

Thanks, 

[PrimitivePete]

Thank you for this. I never knew the man or had heard about him and yet I am humbled to say the least.

[Terry Green]

[Terry Green]

[Terry Green]

[Terry Green]

[Terry Green]