Sylvester Nemes

1922 - 2011

Sylvester Nemes died at home on the outskirts of Bozeman on Feb. 3, 2011, with his wife of 65 years, Hazel Mary Barclay Nemes, by his side.

He was born in Erie, Pa., on April 2, 1922. His father, Dominic Nemes, sent for a bride from his homeland of Roumania, a beautiful young woman named Pauline Angel, making Sylvester a first-born American of an immigrant family. Growing up around Cleveland, Ohio, during the Depression, he worked tending a news stand helping his family and then became introduced to his mentor, a barber, who introduced him to the art of fly tying around 1938. With his new friend he learned to fish and traveled by bus to fish the Pennsylvania streams and Lake Erie with his newly made hand-tied flies. This led to his lifelong passion and writings on the history and lure of fly fishing, and he is the author of many books.

At the onset of World War II at the age of 19 he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Force. Due to faulty eyesight he could not become an aircraft gunner, but worked on the ground with the crucial Fighter Control Squadron with the Eighth Air Force directing planes over the English Channel while being stationed at the Ibsley Air field outside of the New Forest in Hampshire, England.

It was a blind date that introduced him to the young English nursing student, Hazel Mary Barclay. The date took them to the ballroom for a dance at the Crown Hotel in Ringwood, Hampshire. She waited for him to return from his landing at Omaha Beach on DDay+4, where he remained for nine months directing the fighter aircraft pushing back the opposition through northern Europe. He then returned to England, where they were married March 17, 1945, in Southampton, Hampshire, England at Saint Edmonds Church.

After the war while having a young family, Sylvester Nemes attended Kent State University in Ohio and received a bachelor's degree in English, leading to his career as a writer for many well-known advertising firms. Hazel and he remained in the Cleveland area for a while before moving to Detroit, Mich., where he worked as an advertising copywriter. They later settled around the Chicago area while he worked as an advertising copywriter.

In 1961 they moved to Crown Point, Ind., so they would be nearer her sister, Joyce Perry, in Michigan, who had also married a WWII soldier and lived on a farm near Grand Rapids, Mich. There were many wonderful years together fishing the rivers of Michigan while camping with their families. It was at this time that Sylvester started his own business and worked as a photojournalist and traveled the midwest and some western states. The trips in the west usually followed "the hatch."

In 1982 Hazel and Syl spent some time in San Francisco before moving to Bozeman in 1984 and built a house at the base of the Bridger Mountains. The house overlooked the Gallatin Valley and the various mountain ranges and rivers that became their playground. They spent many years fishing and entertaining fishermen and other enthusiasts from around the world. In 2008 Sylvester was given the honor of "Legends of the Headwaters" award by Trout Unlimited of Bozeman.

Hazel Mary Nemes remains living at the family home in Bozeman. The couple had three children. Their first child, a daughter Diane Nemes Corson, was born in England and is married to Lynn Hough Corson III; their second child, Eric Nemes, born in Berea, Ohio, resides in St. Louis, Mo., married and divorced from Diana Schaffer; and their third child, Gregory Nemes, born in Gary, Ind., died in 1984.

The grandchildren are Hallie Wynne Williams of Vancouver, Wash., married to Michael Williams, Effie Brown Alexander of Portland, Ore., and Sage Alexia Corson of Portland, Ore. Their son Eric Nemes' children are Ryan Nemes of St. Louis, Lee Nemes of Missouri, and Dylan Nemes, also of Missouri. Hallie's children, Sylvester's great grandchildren, are Jade Aubrey Williams, Asher Williams, and Ella Williams. Effie and her husband, Andrew Alexander, have another granddaughter, a little girl named Violet.

A memorial gathering will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 20, at the Fish Hatchery on Bridger Drive.

The family requests in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Sylvester Nemes Memorial Fund, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department, c/o Friends of the Bozeman Fish Technology Center, BFTC. Hazel Nemes would like to thank Rocky Mountain Hospice for their beautiful compassionate care, and a donation may made to them in the name of the Sylvester Nemes family. For further information, please contact dianencorson@gmail.com.