It is not hyperbole to refer to George Harvey as a legend in his own time. This Phi Kap from the class of 1935 is one of the world’s foremost experts on fly fishing. Known as the “Dean of Fly Fishing,” he got his start at the Skull House.
George Harvey ’35: Memories of Fly Fishing and Phi Kappa Sigma
It is not hyperbole to refer to George Harvey as a legend in his own time. This Phi Kap from the class of 1935 is one of the world’s foremost experts on fly fishing. Known as the “Dean of Fly Fishing,” he got his start at the Skull House.
When George joined Phi Kappa Sigma in 1935, the house was still young, a mere six years old at the time. In addition to serving the house as president, he ran both track and cross country. “I was the captain of the cross country team in the fall and captain of the track team in the spring,” he said. “I was the only runner in the history of Penn State to win all my races in a season. That was my junior year. Then senior year, I was captain again, but I lost one race.”
George also worked in the house to earn money for tuition. He took care of the furnace and cleaned the house once a week. “I had to work to pay for school,” he said. “Then when I graduated, the university wanted me to work for them, so I started in the College of Agriculture. I worked there until I retired.” Simply put, but it turns out these few words fall far short of telling the whole story.
George Harvey really began his teaching career while still an undergrad at Penn State, teaching his Phi Kappa Sig brothers and others how to tie fishing lures – or flies. The day he went fishing with the Dean of the College of Agriculture, Ralph Watts, he inadvertently launched his career. While George caught two dozen large trout using his hand-tied flies, the dean caught only two little fish using worms.
Once the dean started telling others about this new fly-fishing phenom, George was deluged with requests to pass on his expertise. He taught his first class in 1933 and helped to launch the Fly Fishing Education Program at Penn State in 1947. He became such an expert at teaching the subject that he became known as the “Dean of Fly Fishing.”
Fly fishing is still offered—for credit—at Penn State. You can find out more about the current program on the Web at http://www.personal.psu.edu/staff/m/a/mab6/. Here’s a brief quote from the site: “Many major universities have both educational and sporting traditions that they proudly display. At Penn State over the past 70 years our fly fishing and angling education programs have developed into one of our proudest traditions (and you thought we only thought about football).” The introductory course is referred to as “the core class that George Harvey made famous.”
George is well known among anglers as not only an expert fly tyer and fisherman, but as an accomplished guide. He acted as fly fishing guide for both President Dwight Eisenhower and President Jimmy Carter while they were in office.
The Dean of Fly Fishing also wrote the book (actually, a couple) on the sport: Techniques of Trout Fishing and Fly Tying is described on Amazon.com as a “practical classic…It has for years been considered one of the finest books of instruction for all fly fishermen and fly tyers, novice to expert.”
George’s memoir, George Harvey: Memories, patterns, and tactics, was published by DLS Enterprises in 1998. Now out of print, it can still be found with a little searching. For anyone at all interested in fly fishing—or even the rivers of Pennsylvania—it makes very interesting reading.
A quick Internet search turned up several interesting stories about George, mostly from the 1999 release George Harvey: Memories, patterns, and tactics. They’re a few years old, yes, but still illuminating. For more information about this interesting brother, visit: http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/polycomm/pressrel/sajna/sajna0124.ht, or http://www.mailtribune.com/primet/archive/2000/060600p1.htm or http://flyfisherman.com/northeast/LoreoftheLure/.
George married in 1950 and was happily married until his wife, Helen, passed away in 1994. He and Helen had one daughter, Sue. George now has one granddaughter and two great-grandchildren.
We are fortunate that George’s memoir has already been written because, as he approaches his 94th birthday, George has trouble remembering things as well as he used to. But it may not be simply a symptom of age: George Harvey ’35 has lived such a full life that there’s simply too much to recall!
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