Thursday, January 10, 2013

Big News!

Well, let's get the 'official' part of it over with first:


*****PRESS RELEASE*****

Ben Selman, National Sales Manager for Ben Pearson Archery, has named Bill Howard III as Marketing and Media Director.

Howard is an avid bowhunter and is an outdoors newspaper columnist in North Carolina.  He is also a freelance writer who has contributed for many regional and national magazines including North Carolina Sportsman, South Carolina Sportsman, North Carolina Bowhunter, The Bowfisher, and Stick and String magazines and published Bow Adventures magazine in 2012.  Howard also writes and runs the blog BillHowardOutdoors.com.

Howard is also a lifetime member of the North Carolina Bowhunter Association, associate member with the Pope and Young Club, and an official measurer for both organizations.  He is a certified instructor for both hunter education (IHEA) and bowhunter education (IBEP) in North Carolina as well.  He currently holds four North Carolina bowhunting and bowfishing state records.

A native of Wilson, North Carolina, Howard attended North Carolina State University with a major in English: Writing and Editing.  Howard is married to Susan and they have three children together.

Ben Pearson Archery is the oldest archery equipment manufacturer in the United States and is located in Pensacola, Florida.  The company currently manufactures bows for both competition and hunting and is dedicated to strong Christian values.  The company’s website is BenPearson.com.
 
 
What does this mean?  It means I am about to get REAL busy!  But let's look at a little history first.
     Ben Pearson was responsible in a large part for the growth of bowhunting and archery in the United States.  In 1926, Ben Pearson competed in the Arkansas State championship using his own equipment and finished next to last.  Upset, but focused and dedicated, he redesigned his equipment and in 1927 he became the Arkansas State Champion.  He continued to shoot competitively afterwards finishing as high as 7th nationally.  The same year he finished 7th, another archery legend, Fred Bear, finished 31st.
     Pearson began what has now become the oldest archery manufacturer in the United States.  The company grew in size to meet the demand as it focused on affordable archery equipment and sold that equipment through department store catalogs, making it available to everyone.  In 1963, Pearson was selling between 3000 bows per day and up to 4000 arrows per day.
     Today Ben Pearson archery is but a fraction of that size.  However the company has a superb lineup of bows and the future looks very bright.
     I came into the Ben Pearson family through a pro staff query.  Ben Pearson Archery was developing its competion shooting class and had/has top of the line competition bows.  The problem with me is I do not shoot competition.  So then the thought shifted to having me start as a field staff shooter, allowing me to do what I love most; bowhunt.  We continued discussions and we even considered developing a larger field staff before I recieved a call from Ben Selman, the National Sales Manager for Ben Pearson Archery.
     After a few days of communications by phone and email, we laid out the plan for my inclusion within the company and today I am happy to share the announcement above.

     While I will be working with Ben Pearson Archery in marketing and media, it does not mean the blog will disappear.  It also does not mean this will become a sales leaflet for Ben Pearson, although there will be many pictures including the Ben Pearson Archery Stealth II bow since it is the bow I will be hunting with.  I do invite everyone to check out Ben Pearson Archery on their website at BenPearson.com, on Facebook at facebook.com/BenPearsonArchery and on Twitter at twitter.com/BenPearsonBows.

Now for a little Ben Pearson business...if you are interested in shooting a Ben Pearson bow sometime, no matter what state you are in, shoot me an email at bill.howard@benpearson.com and let's talk.

7 comments:

  1. Congratulations Bill! That is great news!

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  2. Congratulations and best of luck with the new job!

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  3. Congrats, now your passion and career and go together.

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  4. Congratulations, Bill! That is fantastic news!

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  5. Thanks everyone! The news keeps getting better too! Friday, my outdoors column was picked up by 5 more newspapers in North Carolina, a couple of which are in large metropolitan areas. Gonna be a great 2013!

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  6. Sounds like 2013 is off to a great start! Congratulations!

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