Although he had always had a passion and shown a talent for painting, it wasn’t until retirement that former Boy Scouts Executive Dean Ertel was able to expand his portfolio of artwork that can be found across Springfield.
And it wasn’t until the pandemic that Ertel found the inspiration — and the time — to share his many stories, from his time in the military and with the Boy Scouts, in the form of his book titled “Memoirs of a Fish Whisperer,” derived from his eponymous nickname.
Ertel wasn’t wearing a green button-up shirt with “Fish Whisperer” in yellow lettering above the pocket just to promote his memoir, which was published in 2021. His family and friends have gifted him various shirts with that logo over the years, which accurately describe a man who spends countless hours with a rod and reel in hand.
“It seems like I keep getting these shirts all over the place,” he said.
After military service in Japan, Ertel proved his doubters wrong
Ertel, a New Jersey native, painted his first piece of artwork in his sophomore year of high school but, at the time, nothing came of it.
Upon graduating in 1964, a guidance counselor told Ertel that he wasn’t “college material” and encouraged him to pursue a trade. Initially, he took their advice and joined the military. For four years, Ertel worked as a communications specialist for the U.S. Air Force in Okinawa, Japan.
Towards the end of one 18-month stretch stationed overseas, when he was about to head home for 30 days, he bought as many art supplies as he could with the $2 he had. He then went to the beach and began doing something he hadn’t done in several years — painting.
At this point in his career as an artist, Ertel was not only rusty but had very little experience.
“I was just winging it,” he said.
Nonetheless, sitting barefoot with ripped-up blue jeans against a curb near heavy tourist traffic, he made $400 in less than three hours by selling his paintings. As a communications specialist for the Air Force, he made $79 a month.
After his service in the military, Ertel used his benefits from the G.I. Bill to prove himself “college material” and went back to school.
Although he eventually settled on zoology as his major and chemistry as his minor, Ertel tried out a couple of art classes.
One was a beginner drawing and painting class, and the other was for advanced painters.
“I can’t draw worth a darn,” he said.
The first half of the beginner class was focused on drawing, and he closed that quarter with a C. However, upon their first painting assignment, Ertel completed what he considered a relatively good painting in a single night.
“[My instructor] thought that I was cheating and I brought something in because she didn't think I could do that,” Ertel said. “She put her thumb [on the painting] and got her thumb all full of paint and then she was embarrassed.”
Over the course of that class, Ertel completed four different paintings compared to the one every other student finished. In the advanced paintings class, three of his paintings were submitted to an art show, and two of them won prizes. Ertel ended up receiving an A in both courses.
Despite the success he was experiencing with his artwork, something else was pulling him to where he would spend the rest of his career: the Boy Scouts.
A series of accidents paved Ertel’s path to a 40-year career in the Boy Scouts
With a zoology degree, Ertel had brainstormed several career options, none of which included working in zoos, but rather, with animals.
He had dreamt of running Yellowstone National Park or owning his own trout farm. But, after finding a summer job with the Boy Scouts to support his wife and 1-year-old child, he remained in the organization for the next four decades.
As a volunteer scout for the summer, they initially agreed to pay him $50 and provide housing for him and his family at the camp.
When the camp cook quit, they offered his wife the job for $150 to cook for the same period of time as him. Just two days later, right before the camp opened, the commissary director broke his leg. They then offered him an additional $150 to take on the responsibilities of that position as well.
And so began his career with the Boy Scouts.
As a professional scout, Ertel helped oversee operations not only across Missouri, but in the Dakotas, Minnesota and Montana.
“Driving 250 miles a day to cover all the people that you had to try and support was normal,” he said.
Ertel retired from his role as scout executive in 2012, having worked out of the Springfield area since 1994. During his time as an executive for the Ozark Trails Council, the Springfield chapter of the Boy Scouts, he helped raise about $5.2 million to build their current headquarters at 1616 S. Eastgate and do work in two camps in the region.
“That was a big deal,” he said.
Since retiring, Ertel still likes to spend time with the organization and still finds himself at that building at least once a week.
In retirement, Ertel has found the time write, paint and remember
With the newfound time on his hands, Ertel started painting. Since 2012, he has completed 85 paintings.
His paintings come to life through use of a variety of different colors, contrasting shades of light and dark, and differing sizes and shapes to give distance and depth.
His focus is primarily on landscapes, though he has experimented and tried adding animals.
An excerpt from Ertel’s artist statement (a description and introduction of an artist’s body of work) reads:
“I am a landscape artist. My inspiration comes from a lifetime of adventure in the great outdoors. Each painting reflects a special place, a specific point in time, or an experience that left its mark on my life and soul. Some paintings are dreams or visions of places I can see in the future, places not yet part of reality, but exist in a world of anticipation.”
While painting — and continuously spending time outdoors — took up much of his time in retirement, he suddenly found himself bored at the onset of the pandemic. That’s when he had the idea for “Memoirs of a Fish Whisperer.”
The book gives the reader insight into Ertel’s life through 82 short stories that range from his narrow escape from a bear attack to UFO sightings.
“Each story in this book is only a page or two long and it's amazing, in a lifetime, how much stuff you can remember if for some reason something tweaks you to where it triggers that memory because it's all there,” Ertel said, holding up the book. “…There’s some happy things and sad things in here.”
The cover of “Memoirs of a Fish Whisperer” is from one of his paintings, depicting one of two secret places he likes to fish. Ertel said that he caught his personal record of 131 rainbow trout in one day in the creek, illustrated on the book cover.
“I just catch them and let them go,” he said.
That especially rings true for the larger trout he catches. Ertel said that only two of the nearly 10,000 eggs a trout lays in their lifetime will grow to be the size of their mother and, by keeping the larger fish, it would effectively kill off wild trout streams.
But Ertel doesn’t think it was his love of fishing, his stories of his family or recollections of his time in the military of Boy Scouts that made people like his book.
“What's interesting is that most of the people that have read this book that really liked it, it forced them to think about all the things that happened to them in their lifetime,” Ertel said. “It triggers a lot of memories and experiences other people have, I think is what it does.”
“Memoirs of a Fish Whisperer” is available for purchase on Amazon and is available in the Springfield-Greene County Library District.
His artwork has been featured at the Creamery Arts Center, the Springfield-Branson National Airport, Juanita K. Hammons Hall, the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and some local restaurants, including Nearly Famous Deli and Pasta House.
While he sells original pieces, he understands average buyers to the events he sometimes attends won’t spend the roughly $10 an hour he spends per painting, so he will produce prints to sell at a lower rate. Those interested in purchasing his artwork can email him at dean.fishwhisperer@gmail.com.
