VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

(Photo Credit: John Hall, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Dept.)

Rutland/Montpelier

Outdoors

Inducted 2013

Nearly every one of the more than 100,000 Vermonters who hunt and fish today continue to benefit from Ed Kehoe’s leadership and vision. His many achievements are difficult to quantify, but their cumulative impact cannot be overstated.

The native of Rutland County served 17 years as the commissioner of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department. His leadership directed the agency through changing times, including the transformation from primarily a law enforcement and fish-stocking agency into a modern, science-driven fish and wildlife management agency. Among the new or revamped programs Kehoe spearheaded were: starting conservation camps for young Vermonters; introducing the mandatory Hunter Education Program; overseeing reintroduction of wild turkeys, perhaps Vermont’s greatest wildlife success story; starting the Lake Champlain trout and salmon restoration programs; and pioneering fish habitat improvements.

Kehoe started the Green Mountain Conservation Camps at Lake Bomoseen in Castleton and Buck Lake in Woodbury. The camps have introduced tens of thousands of young Vermonters to the outdoors and wildlife conservation, and have since been emulated by other state wildlife agencies in the Northeast. The Lake Bomoseen camp and conservation education center were posthumously named in Kehoe’s honor.

He was named "Outdoorsman of the Century" by the Rutland Herald in 1999 for his many contributions to Vermont’s fish and wildlife resources and its hunting and fishing traditions. He also was the Castleton town manager and served in the Vermont General Assembly. Kehoe passed away in 2000 at the age of 83.