BILL POOLE

Posthumous

Many on the Pacific Coast consider the late Capt. Poole as the greatest pioneer in saltwater fishing in the past 50 years. He is best known as the founder and owner of Fisherman's Landing in San Diego.

He built many legendary boats in the San Diego local and long-range fleets, developed techniques to catch yellowtail, tuna, wahoo and other big-game sport fish and then hired, trained and mentored many of the most famous and most highly regarded skippers on the Pacific Coast.

Poole, who died in 2009 at age 87, was also an avid hunter who traveled the world and stalked big game. Even though he was one of the world's most well known outdoorsmen, he shared his knowledge with anybody who wanted it, including at free seminars available to the public.

RANDY HOUSTON

The rebel outsider who has refused help from corporations is the founder and president of Purple Heart Anglers, a group of volunteers who have taken more than 1,000 disabled veterans into the outdoors to fish or hunt. Houston required that Purple Heart Anglers be nonprofit, nonpolitical and non-ego, and exist only to support disabled vets for the therapeutic value of the outdoors.

"We don't take help from corporations (that want a commercial presence), so nothing interferes with the cause at hand," he said.

Hunting and fishing have been a lifelong passion for Houston, who got his first hunting license at 9, his first buck at 12, and put a record in Boone & Crockett for a deer in Northern California. He has also fished "forever" and has ventured "everywhere, trying everything" in lakes, streams, the bay, the delta and up and down the coast, always looking for the best of California.

In his office, he prizes a folded American flag, once flown in Afghanistan, which was presented to him by a group of vets from the F\5-159th Medevac Unit. Houston runs Purple Heart to honor his brother, a Purple Heart two-tour Vietnam vet who died from complications from exposure to Agent Orange.

DICK PENNIMAN

He is the nation's foremost expert on ski safety and avalanches and an outdoorsman with a world-class scope of adventures. Penniman has taught more than 3,500 ski patrol officers and others about avalanche safety and has never had a person injured by an avalanche among the tens of thousands who have enjoyed downhill winter sports on his watch.

As an instructor, he has taught for 30 years at Sierra Community College, the National Avalanche School, Outward Bound and elsewhere, and provided free lectures at REI stores in Northern California. As an expert in ski patrol, Penniman has worked for Sugar Bowl and Alpine Meadows, and has been hired as a consultant across the United States and Canada and in Chile, Argentina and Australia.

His adventures also have spanned the globe. Penniman sailed six months from San Francisco to Jamaica, trekked over 360 miles in Nepal to Everest Base Camp at over 20,000 feet, and twice kayaked the length of the Grand Canyon. He has completed the Markleeville Death Ride on a bicycle nine times and has raced in the Great Ski Race seven times.

JOHN KOEBERER

John Koeberer is best known as the innovator who brought new-style concessions based on serving the public - from kayak rentals to cabins - to parks and lakes in California, including Lassen Volcanic National Park, San Pablo Reservoir, Asilomar in Pacific Grove and dozens of other recreation destinations across California.

What is lesser known is that Koeberer is the founder and creator of FitKid, a program that rewards children for participating in outdoor recreation and making healthy choices, and Capture California, the first outdoor online social media game.

Koeberer was the first person in America to appoint a child, a 7-year-old, to a national parks foundation board of directors, to provide advice about what youngsters want at parks.

Koeberer is an avid fly-fisher who fishes in California, Oregon, Montana and the Rocky Mountains, and an accomplished skier, runner and hiker, having hiked every trail at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

BOB FORD

As a police officer, Ford's perspective on youth led him to volunteer and then direct the San Francisco Police Department's Youth Fishing Program. "We just want a chance to steer kids in the right direction," he said.

In 25 years, he helped introduce thousands of youngsters, many of them disadvantaged, to fishing, and in the process provided a window where they could see a better way of life. Trips ventured out the Golden Gate for salmon and to Lake Merced for trout.

He also volunteered to help turn the therapy pool each year at Shriners Hospital For Children into a trout pond so physically challenged young people could catch a fish and have a brighter day. Ford is also an avid outdoorsman whose adventures have taken him across North America from Mexico to Alaska on world-class adventures.

Among thousands of trips, he has caught giant salmon and halibut in Alaska, marlin, tuna and dorado off Mexico, and grouper in Florida, and has dived for lobster in the Caribbean.