A straight shooter for multitudes

Though the state's government shutdown might indicate otherwise, Minnesota is home to thousands upon thousands of people who make huge, positive contributions during their lifetimes. One, Bill Stevens, died this week.

Though employed his entire career in the firearms industry, a business some people don't like, everyone who knew Bill liked him.

During his 42 years as a conservation, shooting and hunting promoter for Federal Cartridge of Anoka, Bill leveraged his position, his outsized energy and his positive outlook to reach hundreds of thousands of people, youth in particular.

Without Bill, kids in Boy Scouts, National FFA Organization and 4-H might never have had a chance to learn how to shoot a gun or draw back a bow. Nor would they have learned how the nation's conservation and shooting heritages are linked and how one depends on the other to go forward.

"When I joined Federal in 1973, I wasn't fully aware of the impact Bill had on the shooting sports industry and on people in general," said Gary Svendsen, director of quality and technical service for ATK Security and Sporting Group, which includes Federal. "As time went on, I realized what a true giant he was."

I first met Bill in 1982, when Pheasants Forever was being formed. He might have called me or I might have called him. Either way, he enthusiastically threw Federal's considerable weight behind the nascent bird-club effort.

In the years since, thanks to Bill, Federal Premium ammunition has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to conservation groups through its box-loyalty program, in which a portion of the sale of a box of shells is donated to the National Wild Turkey Federation, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Safari Club International and Pheasants Forever, among others.

Today, nearly every state has a 4-H shooting program, involving more than 300,000 kids annually. The group's mantra: "Learn by Doing." Participants accomplish that by studying gun and bow safety, marksmanship, conservation and personal responsibility.

"Words can't express how much I enjoyed hunting with him," said Andrew (Drew) Stevens, 37, son of Bill and his wife, Nila. "Last fall, after he was diagnosed with cancer and couldn't go to our deer camp, I really didn't want to go without him. But he wanted me to go. He was quite a cook, and he made a big batch of jambalaya to send up with me."

Raised on a small farm near Hinckley, Bill learned to hunt and fish as a boy, and he graduated from the U in fish and wildlife management. In the Army, he was conservation manager of lands at Fort Hood, Texas, and when he returned home, he worked a short time for the Department of Natural Resources, before joining Federal in 1965.

Tirelessly, Bill labored and traveled on behalf of Federal, and on behalf of kids and wildlife, until he retired in 2007.

"One year he invited me to go with him three different times to Wichita, Kansas," Nila chuckled. "I traveled with him some and went on fishing trips with him. But I didn't go to Wichita."

Through that process, and introductions of steel, tungsten, tungsten-iron and tungsten-polymer in shot, Bill was the face not only of Federal, but one of the go-to guys in the industry as it struggled to maintain profitability while helping hunters to adapt to the new ammunition.

A cannon couldn't hold the accolades Bill received, including Field & Stream's Heroes of Conservation Lifetime Achievement Award. But in the end, at age 72, he was the same kid who grew up on that farm near Hinckley: humble, smiling, positive.

"I never heard a bad word said by Bill about anyone, or about Bill by anyone," said Chuck Delaney, owner with his wife Loral I of Game Fair, held each August in Ramsey.

A compliment like that, Bill would have shrugged off.

But he would have held in his heart forever his son's tribute. "Words can't express how much I enjoyed hunting with him."