An editor since 1994, Bill Bowers, aka “The Gear Dude” is The WON’s Field Editor. He’s also been a French/English translator, newspaper reporter, hospital medical transcription supervisor, and staff editor at The Lyons Press in New York City and Guilford, Connecticut.
Bill edits book manuscripts on every conceivable subject, from textbooks on law and medicine to trade books ranging from gardening to Japanese swordsmanship. But he specializes in outdoor books, including fishing, fly tying, hunting, shooting, boating, adventure travel, gunsmithing and more. Bill is freelance editor for Fly Fisherman and Safari magazines, as well as outdoor websites including The WON and GunUp.com. He is the editor of the fiction anthology Classic Ghost Stories, and he and his wife Eileen coauthored a guidebook, 50 Hikes in Central New York’s Leatherstocking Country (W.W. Norton), published in 2010.
Bill’s love of the outdoors began at age three, when his dad took him hiking, and fishing for bluegills with worms and a bobber. He and Eileen live on an isolated riverside farm in rural upstate New York. They love that they can step outside their back door and shoot various firearms to their hearts’ content, and no one is likely to notice, much less care.
Barb Baird, Bill Bowers and Tammy Ballew -- Team WON fishing together at Bennett Spring in Missouri. Photo by Jason Baird.
