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Want to Feel Young Again? Meet an Old Timer
Posted Apr 27, 2017, 7:22 AM by Mike BaloghLife sometimes takes unexpected turns. So it was with our recently completed State-wide raffle. When the first prize winner was picked out of the hundreds of ticket stubs and George Nimmo was announced as the lucky one, immediately some of those in attendance recognized the name.
Back in 1969 George was one of a small group of local conservationists who were at the center of opposition to the Tocks Island Dam project. (you can learn more about this project by visiting the links below). It also was this small group of activists led by Fred S. Burroughs that, in the same year, laid the ground work and founded our Trout Unlimited Chapter, the first of its kind in New Jersey. Fast forward to 1975, when the dam was disapproved by a majority vote of the Delaware River Basin Commission. One of our present charter members, Chet Johnstone recalls that it was George Nimmo who called him from Trenton on that fateful day with the words “we won!”. Chet had not seen nor been in contact with George for many years, and when I approached Chet to find out if he would be interested in meeting up with George over lunch, we had a plan. So on Tuesday after Easter, Chet, Danny Rodriguez (another old timer) and myself got together with George and his wife Jeanne at Bill’s Luncheonette in Chester, NJ. What a reunion and what a lovely time of reminiscing and reflecting on the old times! Too much to mention all of it here, but of course there was the dam, many prior leaders and old friends, George’s service as vice president, treasurer, State Council representative and finally his recognition as a honorary Life Member of State Council. At one point, George became melancholic. He explained how his “mom required more and more of his time and care, he got married and had a child and he left his chosen profession, never to return. TU took a back seat….and eventual his eyes failed him – trout fishing became the odd man out. Not bitter – just realistic – sometimes we have to play the hand life deals us, and so it came to past, he said. The last time he wet a line was in 1999, in the Adirondacks.
Nothing more for me to add, except to say two things: “Thank You” to all you [old] guys who have done so much for our cause, and to call on today’s newer members to hold high the torch they lit in 1969.
Willi Huber
George left me with a P.S. when he wrote to me after the meeting. I want to share it with you:
I’d like to leave you with a quote from the late Fred S. Burroughs, Princeton University, Class of 1937: “The greatest rewards of any organization are not necessarily the accomplishments of the organization, but rather, the human relations that are made”. Fred was right back then and he’s still right.
More about our past:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tocks_Island_Dam_controversy
Ghost Waters: Tocks Island https://vimeo.com/142291370History Lesson by Chet Johnstone: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByKX8aiq9xVoNUpjVFFJZDFMc2M/edit
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