NANFA History
John Bondhus founded the North American Native Fishes Association (NANFA) in 1972. This article appeared in the Fall 2002 American Currents, NANFA’s 30th Anniversary issue (at right)
Christopher Scharpf, our devoted and professional American Currents editor, and Jay DeLong, the driving force behind the NANFA web page, pestered me for some time to write a history of NANFA. I knew it would take a lot of time to write, and time is very dear to me at this point in my life. I have a wonderful second family with two children, five and seven, who need more time and energy than this 58-year-old can easily find. Fortunately, I have a wonderful wife who helps keep my life in balance. For the past 40 years I’ve been running a small multinational sales and marketing company, which I founded. We sell hand tools in over 40 countries, with a sales office in Japan and manufacturing plants in the U.S. and Barbados. The current state of the economy has created a workload that greatly defines my time. In spite of these time constraints, both Chris and Jay are right:
This article is important and the time is right. It’s NANFA’s 30th anniversary!
The main objective of this article is to relate the history of NANFA from the perspective of its founder. I have a second and equally important objective, which is to encourage more involvement from you, the members. You see, NANFA has never been an organization that depends upon one person. Yes, I was very involved, especially during the early years. However, my contributions alone would not have made NANFA what it is today. There have been scores of very dedicated volunteers who devoted countless hours to the association. While there are too many people to mention them all, the ones I do mention have each spent many hundreds of hours defining and improving the association and its mission. They, like me, have done this not just for the sake of NANFA, but because it satisfied a deeper personal need: the need to learn and share what we’ve learned.
The Early Years: 1972-1976
It has been 30 years since our first American Currents was published in the fall of 1972, a simple, folded 8-1/2” x 11” paper format of 26 pages with no volume number. Vol. 1, No. 1 started in the spring of 1973. It had the same logo developed by John R. Quinn (wildlife artist and later editor of Tropical Fish Hobbyist) that is often used today. Vol. 1, No. 1 contained several interesting articles with black and white photos, and a list of 48 NANFA members and officers. The officers included myself as president, H. Ross Brock, Jr. of Georgia as treasurer, Frank Fuqua of California as librarian, Dick Stober of Alabama in charge of the Trading Post, Harry Abrams of Indiana as membership chairman, and eight other positions. These were all self-appointed volunteers as no formal elections or Board had yet been established. All of these officers worked hard to make the organization a reality.
Some deserve special mention as they worked tirelessly for many years in many different capacities. Dick Stober served as president, Board Member, American Currents editor for many years (publishing the first color version of NANFA’s flagship publication). He also worked hard to develop the Trading Post, and filled in as treasurer when asked. Frank Fuqua worked several years as librarian, and editor of American Currents starting in 1974. Bob Rosen of New Jersey was another active member. Although Bob was not one of the first officers, he later served as president, vice president, treasurer, and membership chairman, and helped with other projects.
Four issues of a well-organized American Currents were published in 1973. In the first one of that year, Ray Katula published his first of many articles. Ray later went on to serve in many positions in the club and ultimately became a NANFA Fellow for his contributions. Other members that joined before the spring issue was printed included Gerry Corcoran of Mississippi (our only deceased NANFA Fellow) and R. Bruce Gebhardt of Pennsylvania, one of NANFA’s most active members.
In the summer of 1973, while we were still under 100 members, we had our first convention. It was held in New Jersey and included a collecting trip to the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Six members participated, including Bob Rosen and John Quinn. It is probably the only thing I did in 1973 that I can still remember! I have many fond memories of that trip.
In 1974, telephone costs were high and most members didn’t have enough money to regularly make long-distance telephone calls. Thus we started an active member list and distributed copies of all useful club correspondence to the Board of Directors and anyone who requested to be involved. It functioned somewhat like the current Board e-mail list, but all the items were typed on single sheets of paper, arranged by topic, photocopied, and mailed to active list participants. While this took a lot of time, it accomplished the important task of keeping members informed of what was happening so choices could be made as a group, not by one individual.
We had our first elections and appointed our first elected Board in 1974. I stepped down and became secretary as Dick Stober assumed the presidency. In 1976, Bob Rosen was elected president, and Dick Stober became treasurer, among other duties.
