A local family donated a taxidermied bison, a wild turkey, several species of North American fish, and a black bear to Hillsdale’s Daniel M. Fisk Museum of Natural History.
These gifts came from the Dawson family following the death of Ray Dawson on Aug. 20, 2021, at the age of 94.
His son, Eric ’92, and grandchildren, Carly Crowley ’05, Chet Crowley ’09, Justin Mandrelle ’00, and Brad Rumsey ’09, are all Hillsdale College alumni. He is also survived by his wife, Pauline.
Pauline Dawson said her husband had a lifelong love of the outdoors. He was a farmer, hunter, and respected taxidermist for more than 75 years. He was deliberate when he hunted, which is the hallmark of a responsible hunter, according to Pauline.
“When it came to hunting, he was very patient. He would wait and stalk things out, no matter how the weather was,” Pauline said. “He also had such a good memory. He remembered every shot, where he went, which arrow he used, what the weather was like, and he always knew to go to the right place based on the direction of the wind.”
Eric Dawson said his father was well-educated in many aspects of outdoorsmanship and endeavored to foster this knowledge in his family.
“He was truly an outdoorsman in every sense of the word,” Eric said.
Eric said he and his father would fish in Ontario, Canada, and the Western United States. During these trips, Dawson taught his family how to camp safely, no matter what the weather was like or how difficult the conditions were. He also educated them on animal safety, Eric said.
The fish the Dawson family donated to the college came from some of these trips.
According to Dawson’s hunting journal, he killed the bison on a private ranch in Michigan in 1986 while he was hunting in 20 inches of snow with a recurve bow. He dubbed it “King Kong Bundy,” as he was a fan of professional wrestling.
“The way this hunt went, we saw the tracks of the buffalo the night before that were bedded down in the timber, so we waited until morning to stalk them,” the journal reads. Dawson wrote that he was behind a big pine tree when he shot the bison at 25 yards.
Because of their connection to Hillsdale, the Dawson family said they thought it was fitting for some of the animals to go to the Fisk Museum.
Eric Dawson said his father respected Hillsdale’s goal to help students to become well-rounded, and he would have been honored for some of his animals to go to Hillsdale’s collection. Pauline said he always wanted to donate animals to Hillsdale.
“He was always very in tune to the sense of independence that Hillsdale has, and he realized that the liberal arts education that students receive there has many aspects,” Eric said. “These were the same lessons that my dad wanted us to have when we were growing up.”
Professor of Biology and curator of the museum Tony Swinehart said he first heard about Dawson and his collection from Dawson’s grandson, Brad Rumsey.
“I used to bug Brad about the possibility of acquiring some of the specimens for our museum, so it’s a cool story that started nearly 20 years ago and has finally come to fruition,” Swinehart said.