Search  CIP Home  UD Home

Spotlights Bill Klyn '73 University of Dayton Quarterly, Fall 2005 Bill Klyn doesn’t need a bumper sticker that says, “A bad day fishing beats a good day working.” Fishing is his work and his soul. As fishing product line director for the global technical softgoods company, Patagonia, Klyn oversees the creation of high-tech clothing and equipment. The Mentor, Ohio, native has reeled in cutthroat trout from Jackson Hole, Wyo., where he makes his home, to New Zealand and Australia. On a cashmere-buying trip to Mongolia, the locals landed a taimen, using a squirrel as bait before seeing Klyn’s Chernobyl squirrel fly replicate their efforts. He can tell tales about landing tarpon, sailfish and bonefish on a fly all around the world. “You really can live your dream, even in this day and age,” says Klyn, a sociology grad who worked as a therapist in an adolescent psychiatric hospital in Washington, D.C., before his wanderlust and passion for the outdoors led him West. He co-owned a fly-fishing shop in Jackson Hole and worked as a sales manager for a company that sold waders before Patagonia, based in Ventura, Calif., made him an offer. For Klyn, who never lost his commitment to helping others, Patagonia offered the chance to “use business to do the right thing.” The company donates 1 percent of sales to grassroots environmental efforts and currently mounts a Vote the Environment campaign. As former president of the American Fly-Fishing Trade Association, Klyn also sat on the Department of Interior’s Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation Board and works with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. In 2000, AFFTA co-sponsored the first Congressional Casting Call, taking legislators fly-fishing on the Potomac to highlight the need to protect the nation’s natural resources. “Forty percent of America’s streams and waters won’t support a fish population,” Klyn said at the time. “An event like this reminds Congress how much America’s fisheries are worth fighting for.” These days he’s looking forward to sharing his favorite fishing spots with 4-year-old son Sam. “You can have your dream,” he insists. “You’re never too old to make a change.” —Deborah McCarty Smith

Center for International Programs · University of Dayton · 300 College Park · Dayton, OH 45469-0315 Telephone: (937) 229-3514 Questions and comments: Webmaster