By Pat McDonnel, former Western Outdoor News editor
PLACERVILLE, Calif – Bill Karr, longtime editor, writer, columnist and Northern California WON editor passed away surrounded by friends and family at his home in Placerville on Oct. 25 after a brief illness. Karr, 78, had been retired for several years, but he continued his passions for writing, enjoying the outdoors as a hunter and fisherman and his sportsman’s advocacy. Bill was a past president and continuing member of the Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) and was inducted into the California Outdoors Hall of Fame.
Karr’s life revolved around the outdoors, advocacy and the passion he held for hunting.
John Myrick wrote for Karr for many years and said, “Not only was my mentor but also my surrogate brother.”
Myrick recalls the many stories of Karr, from his service as a Navy sonar operator and then as a purchasing agent in Merchant Marines for a shipping company in Saigon during the war, and experienced the pullout of troops. “He always said it was surreal to walk the streets and be the only American around. He had a lot of stories to tell with the life he had.”
Karr spent many early years as a trapper in Utah, going on to managing a prestigious duck club on the Salt Lake, then built and managed his own duck club in the Sacramento Valley, and in his early years with his late wife Marilyn, he lived in Indio, California as an insurance adjuster with AAA and actively fished orangemouth corvina and hunted waterfowl on the Salton Sea. Seeing many abuses of regulations, he often aided in the apprehension of poachers. He also wrote of the pending fate and importance of the Salton Sea, all concerns that have borne out over the decades as the Sea has shrunken and declined as a once great corvina fishery.
It was at this time in the mid-80s he began writing for Western Outdoors Magazine as a freelancer and was eventually hired full-time as a full-time staff writer for the monthly magazine by its editor Jack Brown and worked as associate editor of Western Outdoor News by Editor Pat McDonell. Within a few years he was named editor of the Northern California edition of WON and continued to be active in gun rights and sportsman’s advocacy.
Said McDonell, “Bill was a character, always active, always smiling, always passionate about trailer boating his rigs to Baja even after he moved to Placerville, hunting waterfowl and sage grouse. He wrote thousands of columns, stories, features, and coordinated the northern staff, and he was quite proud of the work he did getting thousands of kids involved through Youth Fairs he organized in the ‘90s and promoted as part of the annual International Sportsman’s Expo Shows.”
Said Myrick, who was part of those successful Youth Fairs at the shows, “Even today, I will on occasion have some adult approach me, thanking me for the memories they built as children at these youth events, as it helped them become hunters and fishermen.”
McDonell said Karr’s drive to actively hunt and fish and promote and protect the sports and lifestyle never wavered.
“He also understood the real threats to hunting in this state and in gun control by well-heeled advocacy groups the other side, and wrote hundreds of columns and editorials, all of them sounding the bell to get involved. And bottom line, he respected wildlife as a hunter and conservationist. He drew a deep line in the sand on those issues. He was a character, a very talented writer and outstanding person to work with and fish and hunt with. I will miss him dearly.”
Zach Karr, his only child, said the illness as his liver failed him came on quickly. “I’m numb and a little detached as I deal with this, but I know he enjoyed working for WON and all of its editors and writers and working for WON was his dream job. He was most proud of impacting the hundreds of thousands of kids at the Youth Fairs.”
