Ernest Schwiebert

The following excerpt from the closing speech at 2005 opening ceremonies at the American Museum of Fly Fishing typifies the eloquence of Ernie Schwiebert and his writings.

Ernest George Schwiebert, Ph.D., 74, died December 10, 2005 at his home in Princeton, New Jersey.

His numerous awards and honors included the Gold Medal of the American Institute of Architects, The Arnold Gingrich Literary Prize (1978 Federation of Flyfishers), the Aldo Starker Leopold Memorial Award (1994 International Wild Trout Symposium), and life memberships with the Theodore Gordon Flyfishers, Federation of Flyfishers, and The Anglers' Club of New York. He was a member of the Henryville Flyfishers, the Spring Ridge Club, and many other anglers clubs.

Ernest Schwiebert Chapter Trout Unlimited #227 was founded July 28, 1974. The chapter’s website is https://www.esctu.org/ and its local waters are Stony Brook. ESCTU maintains a social media presence on Facebook and Instagram.

Ernest Schwiebert married Sara Mills in 1957 and had one son (Erik) and two grandchildren (Elisabeth and Turner). Having served in the Air Force, he specialized in planning airports and military bases. Traveling on business, he also visited some of the world's best fishing streams, feeding a passion that had begun during boyhood vacations on the Pere Marquette River in Michigan. In 1977 he left the engineering firm of Tippets, Abbott, McCarthy & Stratton, New York. He made scholarly contributions throughout his life as a writer, architect, and student of the art and science of fly fishing for trout and salmon. He wrote more than 15 books about fly fishing and architecture.

He was best known for his extensive writings about fly-fishing. His books include Matching the Hatch (1955), Nymphs (1973), Salmon of the World (1970), and the two-volume Trout (1978). He wrote numerous magazine articles and short stories which were published in such collections as Remembrances of Rivers Past (1972), Death of a Riverkeeper (1980), and A River for Christmas (1988). An often referenced and quoted writer, Schwiebert has over twelve references in Arnold Gingrich’s book The Fishing in Print and fourteen references in Paul Schullery’s American Fly Fishing, A History. Gingrich considered Schwiebert’s position impregnable as the leading angling author of our time and that he had an impressive ability to absorb entomological detail and convert it into pleasing prose for his readers.

Ernest George Schwiebert (1931–2005) was born in Chicago on June 5, 1931. An architect by profession, Ernest "Ernie" Schwiebert was a renowned angler and angling author. Schwiebert spent his childhood in the Midwest, attended high school at New Trier, north of Chicago, earned his bachelor's degree in architecture from Ohio State University, and earned two doctorates at Princeton in architecture and the history and philosophy of architecture.