Nominee: Fred Vanderburgh
Date of birth: October 31, 1949
Place of birth: Elmira, New York
Current Location: Louisa, Virginia
Fred Vanderburgh was born October 31,1949 in Elmira, NY. Fred was raised by his grandparents on a dairy farm in upstate New York where hunting, fishing, and trapping were his zest in life. He loved everything about nature and being in the outdoors. Fred’s interest in taxidermy started at a young age, working on squirrels from his hunting and raccoons and foxes from his trap line.
It was during Fred’s middle adult years while pursuing his job as Director for Construction and Design at Ithaca College that his strong passion for taxidermy took an intense direction. In 1997 he took advanced workshop studies with Jan Van Hoesen and then Joe Meder. He joined and attended numerous state, regional, and national associations and the World Taxidermy Championships®. His list of major awards soon exceeded over 20 and by 2005 won the Joseph Bruchac Award, National Champion, and North American Champion for whitetail deer, along with several first-place awards in the Master Division at the World Taxidermy Championships®.
Fred is well known not only for his quality of taxidermy, but also his artistic arrangements using old weathered pine stumps and root structures as part of his whitetail compositions. Once he selects a natural design from nature, he would alter or sculpt his form in a natural pose that worked within the composition. Many others soon picked up on this technique of composing the presentations first, then sculpting the mannikin.
Fred also developed the round-eye setting method for establishing proper eye rotation in whitetail attitudes. He developed and taught his concept of geometry of the whitetail head and taught reference interpretation. Fred raised whitetails and offered workshops for many years. He judged and gave seminars at over 20 state, regional, and national shows, and eight World Taxidermy Championships®.
With his many accomplishments in the field of taxidermy, Fred has also contributed in many ways to his state association, serving for eight years as president of United Taxidermists of New York. He also served for 12 years on the Board of Directors of the National Taxidermists Association, and assisted the NTA through some very difficult times, both financially and through his leadership. His contributions to trade and association publications and teaching videos through media outlets are just a few of his timely endowments to the taxidermy community.
Fred is the owner of Visions Unlimited Wildlife Studio and now resides in Louisa, Virginia.
