Everett Garrison

Edmund Everett Garrison (b. winter of 1893, Yonkers, New York; d. February 8, 1975, Ossining, New York, United States) was a structural and electrical engineer known as a maker of bamboo fly rods and co-author of A Master's Guide To Building A Bamboo Fly Rod. Everett Garrison's methods and designs have been utilized by generations of bamboo fly rod makers. His rods fetch high prices from collectors.

Early life Everett Garrison was born in Yonkers in the winter of 1893. He was of Dutch ancestry. His father was an engineer who held two degrees from Columbia University. His family owned and operated a steam driven barge business along the Hudson River. Garrison grew up in Yonkers and went on to study electrical engineering at Union College, where he earned a degree in 1916. He tested steel for Curtiss-Wright aircraft engines, and later became involved in railroad construction. He also lived in Staten Island and Ossining, New York. He was married to Charlotte Goff.

Innovator of bamboo rod building In 1922, Garrison met George Parker Holden, author of The Idyll of the Split-Bamboo. Initially, Garrison was interested in bamboo construction as a way to improve the shafts on his golf clubs and began to visit Holden at his house in Yonkers. Both men were avid golfers, both also shared a love of fly fishing. It was there that Garrison made his first bamboo fly rods.

The appearance of Everett Garrison's rods reflect his ethos of design and construction. The relatively small number of rods he made during his career are a tribute to quality craftsmanship and a philosophy of performance through simplicity of design. The aesthetics of his fishing rods were not concerned with artifice or embellishment and were never altered. when he became an apprentice to Garrison. They were collaborating on a book when Garrison died. Carmichael completed the manuscript using notebooks, recordings and photographs.