Two sorely missed whitetail icons: Larry Huffman (right) posed for this picture several years ago at the Iowa Deer Classic with Larry Raveling and his great Iowa buck taken in 1973. Sadly, Larry Raveling passed away in April 2005 after suffering a heart attack. Photo courtesy of the Huffman family.

There are few men who have walked this earth with more love for whitetails than Larry Huffman of West Bend, Wisconsin. Sadly, Larry passed away in early January 2007 after a brief illness. He had just turned 71 in December.

In May 2006, Larry damaged his shoulder in an accident on a 4-wheeler. His doctor told him that he would never shoot a bow again. Determined to prove his doctor wrong, Larry hoped that, with therapy, he could be back in the woods with his bow in the fall of 2006. But it was not to be. Kidney failure due to diabetes ultimately took him from his family and friends in early January.

Larry harvested his first whitetail, a running doe, with a Bear recurve bow during Wisconsin's 1962 archery deer season in the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge. His budding obsession for whitetails grew during the '70s and '80s. He and his wife, Joyce, had four sons: Greg, Todd, Doug and Troy. The boys all became whitetail hunters.

By 1990, Larry's fascination with whitetails led him to start collecting world-class racks. Gordon Whittington, then editor of North American Whitetail, remembers meeting Larry for the first time at the Boone and Crockett Club convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in June 1992. "I had heard of Larry from Dick Idol, who at that time was still writing a lot of big-buck features for us," Gordon recalls. "I immediately realized Larry was as crazy about giant whitetails as I was, and we hit it off from the start.

"Larry and I had a similar passion for big racks, as well as the stories and photos behind them," Gordon continues. "As he began to purchase and trade for some of the deer that would soon become his 'Legendary Whitetails Collection,' we often shared information. Sometimes he'd know about a buck we were trying to track down for a feature story in North American Whitetail. Other times I'd hear about a big rack that he was interested in and I'd pass the information along to him. In that way we helped each other a lot over the years."

STRIVING FOR THE BEST
Gordon felt honored when Larry, along with David Morris of Venture Press, asked him to co-edit the first Legendary Whitetails book in 1996. Gordon was honored again when Larry asked him to edit the second volume in that series, published in 2001. Each book is a coffee-table work of art featuring 40 historic stories about some of North America's top whitetails of all time. Volume 1 actually contains stories about 40 world-class bucks that made up Larry's original collection. Duncan Dobie, current editor of North American Whitetail, wrote several stories in each book. Legendary Whitetails III was in the works (and scheduled to be published later in 2007) at the time of Larry's death.

"Though Larry was a smart, self-made businessman, I never got the impression that his interest in trophy-class whitetails was based on profit potential," Gordon notes. "It was more of a hobby for Larry. He simply loved world-class bucks."

A SELF-MADE MAN
Larry's passion for whitetails was an extension of his excitement for life. Born and raised in Galesburg, Illinois, he moved to Wisconsin in 1957 and began working as a draftsman for Super Sky Products, International, of Mequon, Wisconsin, the leading skylight company in the world. His 30-year service included serving as president and CEO until 1987. He later founded several businesses, including the East Mequon Development Corporation, a commercial real estate development firm. Wildlife Images, an art gallery and direct mail-order company specializing in hunter apparel, and Venado Hills Whitetail Farm were also successful businesses born out of Larry's love for whitetails.

In February 1991, Larry's obsession with trophy whitetails prompted him to purchase the Walter Schreiner collection of 13 world-class heads. That collection included five typicals averaging 196 3/8 inches and eight non-typicals averaging 238 7/8 inches. Larry next acquired Dr. Charles T. "Chuck" Arnold's well-known collection in October 1992. That one-of-a-kind collection included the Jim Jordan 206 1/8-inch typical (at that time, the reigning world-record typical), the John Breen 202-inch typical, the Elburn Kohler 265 3/8-inch non-typical, and the 207 2/8-inch typical Flemming sheds.

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