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| Mr Richard Rineer, Owner, R&D Enterprises |
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| Mr. Rineer is the owner of R&D Enterprises, Crystal Canoe Company, and Cold Creek Rod Company.
Mr. Rineer first retired from the US Army as a Signal Communications Officer in 1988 and shortly thereafter accepted an appointment to the White House to help create and activate the newly proposed Office of National Drug Control Policy. In 1994 he moved on to the Department of Education as the Special Assistant to the Secretary for Technology Fusion. Following that assignment he moved to the Environmental Protection Agency where he retired in June of 2011. During his 43 years of Federal service he never forgot his roots and upon retirement moved back to Benzie County Michigan to pursue his life-long dream of making premium bamboo fly rods, building boats and canoes, performing community service and fishing full time.
As a young man Mr. Rineer started building bamboo fly rods in the 1950's out of Honor Michigan and has continued to produce many premium rods over the years. In his new facility he now has a tool and machine shop dedicated to producing these fine rods. Historically, most of his rods have been for specific clients and friends. I completed my first 'great' bamboo fly rod in the summer of 1959 under the watchful eye of Harold Hanson, one of the leading bamboo fly rod makers and model boat builders of his time. (Harold has a number of examples of his work on display in the Smithsonian and the White House.) To me Harold was a real task master and during the summer of '59' he destroyed two of the bamboo rods I had made because they did not meet his "minimum" quality standards. When I finished the third rod and he had a moment to inspect it, he said, "It will make a fine fishing rod." I was devastated because I didn't understand that what I was building was a "fishing rod", I had thought that I was building a work of art. Only later in my life, after Harold had passed, did I understand "a fine fishing rod" was the highest complement he could have given me. The reason is simple, we build rods, not to make them works of art, but to make them great for fishing. I build fishing rods and expect my rods to touch water as often as possible.
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