John Skinner

[Mike Gilbert]

As has been noted in other posts, John Skinner was the APA Standard Committee chairman during the process of achieving APA Standard recognition in the early 1980's.    He was a very accomplished poultryman.    For those who may be interested, his obituary is printed in the August edition of Poultry Press.    He will always have a special place in my memory, as he judged the first local county fair that we participated in here in La Crosse County, and awarded our daughter a merit badge for poultry showmanship.   If memory serves, I believe he said at the time it was the first time he had done so.  That would have been around 1980 or so when Melissa was 10 years old, and she had never done showmanship before.  Mary and I were proud parents that day. 

[Beth Curran]

So sorry to hear of the loss of your friend, Mike. What a wonderful memory!

[Russ Blair]

My condolences to his family and cherish the memories Mike. Seems every year I lose someone close to me and get that painful reminder how fast time seems to pass by.

[Mike Gilbert]

 Thank you.   John Skinner and I were not close friends, just acquaintances due to the chicken hobby.    There will be an article in the next newsletter that provides more detail.

[Suki]

As Mike said elsewhere...

it was actually the ABA who recognized Ameraucanas first.   ABA recognition came in 1980, the APA not until 1984.   The large fowl Ameraucanas came in on the coat tails of the bantams, the LF without even a qualifying meet.   We in the Ameraucana Bantam Club at the time were surprised to say the least.   

After the announcement was made, I worked with John Skinner of the University of  Wisconsin, then chairman of the APA Standards Committee, to re-word the bantam Standard for the APA.   John did the primary work, but submitted it to us for comments and revisions.   He got a bad rap from Don and a few others, but he was as impartial as anyone could be. 

Prior to the APA qualifying meet for bantams (Ohio National, 1983) John had encouraged us to work with Tom Lippincott's group based in Ohio to form a unified Ameraucana Standard, but we had already been approved by the ABA, and Tom would not cooperate with us.  His birds had mostly yellow and willow shanks, so I suppose that was the main reason.