Richard P. Smith from Marquette, Michigan reached the pinnacle of his writing career during 2025 with his induction into the Michigan Outdoor Hall of Fame administered by the Michigan Outdoor Writers Association (MOWA). He joined an elite group of people that have had a major influence on educating the public about many aspects of enjoying the outdoors during their lifetimes. He is the first inductee from the Upper Peninsula (UP).
According to a MOWA news release about his induction into the Hall of Fame, “Smith has been a prolific outdoor writer for more than 50 years and began his career by writing for Marquette’s Mining Journal when he was in high school. He is a nationally recognized essayist, photographer, and speaker who has authored 33 books and thousands of magazine articles, specializing in all types of wildlife.
“He writes monthly for Woods-N-Water News and Michigan Outdoor News, and his writing and photography appear regularly in national magazines including Deer and Deer Hunting, Buckmasters Whitetail Magazine, Rack, North American Whitetail, Whitetail Times, Outdoor Life, Bowhunter, Fur-Fish-Game, Upland Almanac and National Wildlife.
“He has won numerous awards from MOWA and the Outdoor Writers Association of America for his newspaper and magazine articles and photographs, and he has been awarded first place in the MOWA book division on multiple occasions. One of his more prestigious honors was the receipt of the coveted Ben East Prize from the Michigan United Conservation Clubs for conservation journalism about bear management in 1997. He also received the outdoor journalist of the year award from the Flint, Michigan Chapter of Safari Club International the same year. Smith received those awards because many of his articles helped defeat a referendum that would have had a negative impact on bear hunting and management in Michigan.”
“Previous inductees into the Michigan Outdoor Hall of Fame include Fred Bear, Tom Huggler, Larry Kelly, Buzz Lockman, Mort Neff, Eppinger Manufacturing Co., Dr. Howard Tanner, Mark Martin, Steven Rinella, Jim Foote, Denny Geurink, and Kevin Van Dam.”
Besides writing books and articles, Smith has produced two DVDs. One that is an excellent reference for black bear hunters titled Field Judging Black Bears. A 90-minute DVD titled Walking With Whitetails that Smith filmed and produced with the help of his wife, Lucy, is educational and entertaining for anyone interested in learning about whitetail deer. This popular animal’s year-round behavior is featured and includes some unique clips of deer behavior that few people have been fortunate enough to see. Clips that Smith filmed over a period of nine years while walking with does more than 10 years old and bucks up to 4½-years-old went into producing this DVD.
His best typical whitetail is a Saskatchewan 10-pointer he got in 1999 that qualified for honorable mention in Boone and Crockett Records with a net score of 163 7/8. Prior to that, he bagged a nontypical 12-pointer with a 9-inch drop tine from the same area that netted 165 3/8. During 2010, he connected on another Saskatchewan nontypical with 13 points that gross scored 171 3/8. His best Michigan buck is a typical 11-pointer he shot on public land in the Upper Peninsula (UP) that nets 148 4/8. He’s taken a number of other bucks that score in the 140s.
During the spring of 2002, Richard bagged a huge black bear in Saskatchewan with a .45 caliber Knight Super Disc Muzzleloader that is the second highest scoring black bear in national muzzleloading records maintained by the Longhunter Society. The bruin’s skull officially measures 21 14/16, also qualifying for a spot in Boone and Crockett Records. He was hunting out of Lone Wolf Camp operated by Brian and Shelly MacDonald when he got the trophy bear. A full mount of the animal is on display at a Cabela’s Store in Hamburg, Pennsylvania that opened in 2003. Since then, he collected two more trophy Saskatchewan bruins with a muzzleloader that qualify for honorable mention in Boone and Crockett Records, with skulls scoring 20 2/16. Richard has four trophy bruins in Pope and Young Records that he got with bow and arrow and he also took three book bears with a muzzleloader in Michigan.
He is the second person in Michigan to collect a CBM Grand Slam. To complete such a feat, a hunter must shoot deer, bear, elk and turkey that qualify for listing in state records maintained by Commemorative Bucks of Michigan (CBM). It took Smith a lifetime of hunting in the state to achieve the goal. His slam was completed on November 3, 2000 when he bagged a turkey that qualified for CBM records. Only about a dozen hunters had achieved a CBM Grand Slam as of 2023, which shows how difficult an accomplishment it is.
The head mount of a snarling black bear that Smith shot with bow and arrow during 1974 plays a prominent role in the movie “Escanaba In Da Moonlight.” The movie was filmed in and near Escanaba, Michigan during 2000 and is now available on DVD and video. A screen-filling image of the bear head appears near the beginning of the movie as well as in a number of later scenes as it hangs on the hunting camp wall depicted in the film.
As a photographer, Smith may be the only person to capture a grizzly bear attack on film. He was photographing the relocation of a problem grizzly in Montana one year when the attack occurred. That unique sequence of images has been published worldwide and appear in several videos.