Talkin' 'bout my generation (and the next one after that)

Longtime fly fishing outfitter Orvis announced last week that 37 year-old Simon Perkins of Manchester, Vermont will be the company’s new president. That might not have caught my attention, but for the fact that he’ll be the third Perkins to hold that role, dating back over 50 years, His grandfather Leigh held the role from 1965 through 1992, and his father, also named Leigh but commonly referred to as “Perk,” held the role from 1993 through 2018.

Whenever I see a third generation family member take over a big company, one steeped in culture like Orvis, my initial inclination is to be nervous. I assume that they’ll be more along the lines of Spaulding Smails, spoiled brats who are unexceptional but genetically fortunate. Although I haven’t met Perkins number three, from what I can tell he’s about as far away from that stereotype as possible. Not only did he previously work as a fishing and hunting guide, but he’s also put his stamp on corporate culture, working to bring women and other underrepresented groups into the sport. It’s an impressive resume, to be sure.

While I can certainly understand the desire to carry on a family legacy, a pedigree can also be an albatross around your neck. Young Perkins no doubt will have to hear from old-timers, “That’s not how your father did it,” or “Your grandfather wouldn’t approve of that decision.” Had he sought to become instead the Sausage King of Chicago, no one could have blamed him. But this is the path he’s chosen, and as a confirmed basshead who only occasionally dabbles in flyworld, I’m jealous. While we have multiple generation angling families (think Dion and Guido, or Alton and Alton Jr.), multiple generation media families (Jerry and Mike McKinnis) and even multiple generation boat builders (Rick and Ron Pierce; Forrest Wood and Keith Daffron), we’ve yet to have a situation where it spanned three generations with all three generations making a distinct and positive footprint on the legacy.

Nepotism for its own sake is often counterproductive, but what can we do in the bass fishing world to make sure that the offspring of our brightest lights want to follow in their parents’ foosteps?