Brister, Bob

Bob Brister was born in Kerens, Texas, on January 25, 1928. After graduating from high school in Kerens, he briefly served in the US Army from 1946 to 1947. Enrolled at the University of Texas at Austin for two years as a journalism major, Brister left school to work as a reporter for the Athens Daily Review. He became the Managing Editor of the Athens Daily Review at the age of twenty-one. Brister subsequently worked for the Tyler Courier Telegraph and the Marshall News Messenger before becoming the Outdoors Editor of the Houston Chronicle in 1954. Brister stayed with the Chronicle for forty years, retiring in 1998. In the late 1960s he hosted a local television show entitled Outdoors with Brister and later began filming and producing movies including two award-winning big game fishing films for the Pinas Bay resort in Panama. From 1971 to 1985 Brister was also the Shooting Editor of Field and Stream . He authored three books: The Golden Crescent (1961), a collection of short stories together with paintings by nationally known painter John Cowan; Moss, Mallards & Mules (1973), a collection of hunting and fishing stories; and Shotgunning: The Art & Science (1976).

Brister traveled extensively, hunting and fishing all over the continental U.S., Africa, South America, Europe and Alaska. In 1968 he raced in the Texas Channel Derby in the fishing boat class and won first place overall. He shot and won several contests in skeet, trap, and international trap. In 1980 Brister traveled to England to learn the traditional English game of sporting clays. Upon returning to Houston he crusaded to get the gun industry and range owners interested in the sport. Brister was often called the father of sporting clays in the U.S. with many Texas sporting clays shooters referring to him as a living legend.

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