Information Sheet
R Cullimore family.
1090 Collection, 1973-1992.
Four
folders.
These are papers of the Cullimore family of
journalists and outdoor writers. The
collection consists of correspondence between Donald B. “Rocky” Cullimore and
Dan Saults, and a compilation of Saults’s articles in Branson and Springfield, Missouri,
newspapers.
This collection represents the first installment of
what will be a much larger assemblage of Cullimore family papers. It centers on conservationist and author Dan
Saults, a close friend of the Cullimore family, and supplements materials in
the Saults collection (WHMC-Rolla R403).
Saults was a leader in promoting conservation efforts in Missouri. A native of Knob Noster, Missouri, he bought the Knob Noster Weekly Gem after graduating
from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He operated the paper until World War
Two. Saults served as an officer in the
339th Infantry Regiment in North Africa and Italy during the war, after which he spent a
year in Texas. In 1947, Saults joined the Missouri
Department of Conservation, heading the department’s information service and
editing the Missouri Conservationist. Later he became the deputy director of the
department. In 1964, Saults joined the
U. S. Department of the Interior and moved to Washington, D.C.,
where he worked with the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife
Service. He retired in 1973. Saults and his wife, Helen, a former National
Park Service employee, moved to a home near Branson, Missouri. He remained active in conservation circles
and in 1979 was elected president of the Outdoor Writers Association of
America. He wrote a weekly column,
“Saulty Observations,” for the Branson
Beacon, 1973-1979, and a weekly column for the Springfield Daily News, 1982-1985.
Through journalism and shared interests, Saults became
a personal friend of Donald Grant Sharp Cullimore (1907-1989). A native of Oklahoma City,
Oklahoma, Cullimore majored in journalism at
the University of Missouri-Columbia before beginning a twenty-year career as a
newspaperman and editor for the Jefferson
City News Tribune and the Wichita Eagle.
In 1942 he became the editor of war news from the European Theater
for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He also began writing feature stories and
articles on “outdoor” themes, and published a ground-breaking series of
articles in the Post-Dispatch on the
Irish Wilderness of southeastern Missouri. He joined the Outdoor Writers Association of
America (OWAA) in 1951. In 1953, Cullimore
became the first public relations director for Johnson Outboard Motors in Illinois, and in 1958 became
the public relations director for Gator Trailers of Florida. After the death of his wife in 1958, he
became a freelance writer and editor; remaining active in the OWAA. In 1963, he became the first full-time
executive director of OWAA, a post he held until his retirement in 1972. During his tenure, Cullimore successfully
revived the OWAA and established it as a nationally-recognized organization in
the outdoor field. In 1976, Cullimore
was asked to write the history of the OWAA, resulting in the 1977 publication, Fifty Years of O.W.A.A.—A Historical Summary
of the Outdoor Writers Association of America. Cullimore retired to Holiday Island, Arkansas,
where he continued writing and editing until his death in 1989.
Cullimore and Dan Saults led efforts to adopt of the
Irish Wilderness as a federally-protected wilderness area. Along with Leonard Hall and other
conservationists, they were also active in the fight to prevent damming of the Current River by the Army Corps of Engineers.
Two of Cullimore’s sons, Donald Barton “Rocky”
Cullimore and Lee Marmaduke “Duke” Cullimore, followed his path into journalism
and “outdoor” writing. Duke Cullimore
was born on 20 September 1933 in Jefferson
City, Missouri. He majored in journalism at the University of
Missouri-Columbia. He was executive
director of the American Water Ski Association, vice-president of Outdoors Inc.
(Columbia, Mo.), and editor of Outdoors and Water Skier
magazines. He currently resides in Versailles, Missouri.
Donald Barton “Rocky” Cullimore was born on 30 March
1940 in Wichita, Kansas.
He majored in American History at George Mason
University. He spent many years in newspaper journalism
with the Jacksonville
(Fla.) Journal,
Jefferson City
(Mo.) News
Tribune, Oregon Journal, (Portland, Ore.)
Oregonian, and Pacific Coast
newspapers. He was editor of Outdoor America, Environmental Action, and Water
Skier magazines. He currently resides
in Fayette, Missouri,
where he is a freelance writer and director of public relations and
publications at Central
Methodist University.
Folders 1 and 2 contain the correspondence between Rocky
Cullimore and Dan Saults. Like his
father, Rocky Cullimore became a close personal friend of Dan Saults, crediting
him as “a significant mentor to me. He
shaped my reading habits, encouraged my intellectual curiosity and honed my
passions in politics and philosophy.”
Cullimore and Saults were in Washington,
D.C. at the same time (Saults at
the Department of the Interior and Cullimore with Environmental Action). The
two began a regular correspondence when Saults left Washington
for Branson, Missouri, that continued until Saults’s
death in 1985. The major themes of their
correspondence are the Outdoor Writers Association of America, the Missouri
Department of Conservation, national politics during the Carter and Reagan
administrations, people and events in Washington, D.C., local events and life
in Missouri (especially Taney County) and Oregon, the Ozark Institute of Eureka
Springs, Arkansas, journalism and the newspaper business, and friends and
mutual acquaintances among journalists and writers including Clay Anderson, Robert
Anderson, Chuck Cadieux, L. B. Cook, Donald G. Cullimore, Elmo Ingenthron, Lee
Marmaduke “Duke” Cullimore, Harry Fey, Jim Keefe, Lynn Morrow, George Reiger,
Joel Vance, Ron Way, Patsy Yarnell, and others.
Folders 3 and 4 contain copies of Saults’s weekly
columns in the Branson Beacon and Springfield Daily News. The wide-ranging columns covered many of the
same themes as discussed by Saults and Cullimore in their correspondence. Saults frequently sent Cullimore drafts or
published versions of his articles, and there are many references to the
columns in their correspondence. The
articles reveal Saults’s wide interests, writing style, and wit. Some of the articles are autobiographical,
such as those about his experiences in the 339th Infantry Regiment
in Italy during World War Two, but many more concern a wide range of
political, social, and historical topics including natural history, local and
national politics, Taney County, development of the Branson area, the Outdoor
Writers Association of America, the Irish Wilderness, conservation, leading
conservationists and students of the Ozarks such as Don Cullimore, Pete Czura,
George B. Herndon, Elmo Ingenthron, Dru Pippin, and Eugene Poirot, and
journalists including Harry J. Fey, James Keefe, and Joel Vance.
Shelf List for this collection
Index Cards for this collection
Index to Folder 1 for this collection
Index to Folder 2 for this collection
Index to Folder 3 for this collection
Index to Folder 4 for this collection
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