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Bourke, George

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I'm George Bourke and was born and raised in Michigan.  After getting my engineering degree from the University of Michigan, I moved to Northern California for the next 22 years.  While there, I co-founded a company, got married, and had two wonderful daughters.  After 22 years, I took a job back in Michigan and was laid-off after 9/11 and spent the next several years trying to find another one doing anything anywhere for any salary.

My interest in bamboo rods began in the early 1970's and I started finishing blanks from other makers (Orvis, Phillipson, Thomas & Thomas, Sewell Dunton, Partridge, Clifford Constable, etc.).  Just as I graduated from college, I acquired a Herter's combination penta- hexa- planing form from Len Codella (I spoke to him about two years ago and he said it was the only combo form he ever ran across from them).  A couple of big problems at the time were (a) I was moving to California; and, (b) the embargo was still on, so I couldn't get any bamboo to work with.  I contacted a number of the famous rodmakers and the only one that wrote back with anything encouraging was H.L. Leonard's "Hap" Mills.  He did offer to sell me a small amount of their 30+ year old stash and invited me to come over if I was ever in the neighborhood (about 1,000 miles away)...unfortunately, I never was.

Fast forward ahead many years, and I discovered Rodmakers and joined the list in 1997 and was relatively active the first few years while I was still in California.  Moving across the country back to Michigan for a new job and the ensuing prolonged job-search period after the post-9/11 lay-off, I didn't get a chance to follow the list too much but have saved almost every posting.  I'm hoping that now that I've got a job (120 mile a day commute and 10 hour days), I'll get a chance to get into this like I'd intended.