Ernest G. Schwiebert Jr. *66

Ernest Schwiebert, architect and piscatory expert, died of renal cancer Dec. 10, 2005 in Princeton, N.J. He was 74.

Schwiebert spent his childhood in the Midwest, attended Ohio State University, and earned two doctorates at Princeton in architecture and the history and philosophy of architecture. Having served in the Air Force, he specialized in planning airports and military bases. Traveling on business, he also visited some of the world's best fishing streams, feeding a passion that had begun during boyhood vacations on the Pere Marquette River in Michigan.

Schwiebert wrote volumes about angling. As an undergraduate, he made his first original contribution to the sport in Matching the Hatch (1955), in which he advised making artificial flies in imitation of just-hatched insect nymphs that swim en masse at the water's surface. In addition to numerous articles, he is perhaps best known for Trout (1979), a seven-pound book on the history of fly-fishing, with the author's own illustrations.

A founder of Trout Unlimited, Schwiebert advocated the release of caught fish — only fitting for a traditionalist who professed that "trout were gentlemen."

Schwiebert is survived by his wife, Sara; his son, Erik; and two grandchildren.