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.