Charles Grayson
| Charles Grayson | |
|---|---|
Dr. Charles "Bert" Grayson
|
|
| Born |
July 24, 1910 Iowa |
| Died | May 15, 2009 (aged 98) Clatskanie, Oregon |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | bow hunter & bowyer author, collector |
| Known for | Archery |
Charles Elbert Grayson (July 24, 1910 - May 17, 2009) was an archer, bowyer, archery collector, and author. His archery collection is contained in the University of Missouri Museum of Anthropology.
Charles Grayson was born in 1910 on a farm in Iowa, the eighth in a family of nine children. When he was nine years old, the family relocated to Riverside, California. He graduated from Riverside Polytechnic High School in 1928 and from there, went on to attend Pomona College from 1928-1933. While attending Pomona College he and a friend, together with a Japanese student, began archery as a sport. This was Grayson's first introduction to formal Japanese archery. After graduation from Pomona, Grayson studied physics at the University of California, Berkeley, but eventually changed his interests to medicine. He graduated from Stanford School of Medicine in 1942 as a radiologist.
A close neighbor of Grayson's in Riverside, a scoutmaster and archer, was friends with prominent archers such as Art Young, Saxton Pope, and William "Chief" Compton. Grayson made his first bow from a lemonwood stave that he won selling tickets to a movie about Art Young's trek across Alaska.
In private practice in Sacramento, Grayson took up archery again. He became skilled in making various types of bows and became involved in local, regional, and national archery associations. He has won many medals in competition, at one time holding the amateur record for the 65-lb class in flight shooting. Hunting expeditions and professional travel provided opportunities to collect archery-related materials in areas such as Mexico, British Columbia, Alaska, and Africa.
In 1960, Grayson and his wife built a house in Oregon where they retired in 1972. There he added a building to house his vast archery collection and related materials like thumb rings, ivory sculpture, and paintings. He began donating his collection to the University of Missouri Museum of Anthropology in the early 1990s.
Dr. Grayson collected archery from all over the world. His archery collection spans artifacts from China, Tibet, Thailand, Japan, Korea, Turkey, Iran, India, Pakistan, Mongolia, the Philippines, Africa, North America, South America, as well as more contemporary pieces from Europe (England) as well as the United States. Dr. Grayson also collected bows from Fred Bear and collected many of the record setting flight bows from Harry Drake.
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