Rod & Gun at 100: Love of the outdoors helps members forge enduring bonds

Hazel Arthur knows how to handle a fishing rod. 

The 9-year-old recently won the Acton Rod & Gun Club fishing derby in the girls ages 9-14 division by landing six fish. (Actually, she caught eight, but a family member who was trying to help lost two off the dock.)

“She’s caught the bug for fishing,” said Hazel’s mother, Brittany Jordan-Arthur.

Acton Rod & Gun Club turns 100 this year, and there have been countless moments over the years like the one Hazel experienced — connecting with the outdoors in satisfying and fun ways.

“It is a unique organization and an important part of the community,” said 90-year-old Henry Dane, club president from 2004 to 2018. “Part of our mission is to provide outdoor education to young people. We have typically given a scholarship to two kids to go to the conservation camp run by the state fish and wildlife department.”

Gina Joyce, the current president, was elected three years ago, even though she had only been a member since 2020. At first she was reluctant to run but was supported by club directors and former presidents with decades of experience.

Joyce retired from the Massachusetts State Police in 2021 as a detective lieutenant after 27 years of service.

“The board consisted of all men, but being used to that, I felt comfortable,” she said. “As I began attending events, I started to realize how special the club really is. So diverse, from war veterans telling their stories and sharing the losses of loved ones to an Italian professional fencer with an incredible sense of humor.”

Joyce first saw the club when she attended the Board of Governors meeting to become a member.

“Upon driving up to the clubhouse and seeing the cabin structure beyond the pond, it felt right,” she said. “The grounds are beautiful and peaceful and so close to home.”

Hazel Arthur’s grandfather, club member Forrest Jordan, introduced both his granddaughter and grandson to fishing.

“He invited us to bring the kids down [on] a rainy day,” Jordan-Arthur said. “They caught nothing — but did win fishing poles at the end for their persistence.”

‘Deer, moose, alligator’

Jordan and his wife, Lynn, moved to Acton five years ago to be close to their daughter and her family. Jordan grew up on the Indian River in Florida, where he fished, hunted, and “did all kinds of outdoor activities,” so joining Acton Rod & Gun was a logical step.

“I can’t say enough about the club,” Forrest Jordan said. “It’s a great location for teaching the stewardship of the great outdoors and for kids to learn fishing and archery. Archery is a big club activity, also.”

Membership Director Glenn Gutwillig said Acton Rod & Gun has about 430 members, ranging from junior members ages 16 to 21 to lifetime members 65 and up.

“Our club is still very much a sportsman’s club, with different groups interested in different things, but it’s also a social club,” Gutwillig said. 

No event is bigger than the annual game dinner, which is open to the public and sells out every year, he said: “The guys who hunt are also big-time chefs. They cook what they hunt — deer, moose, alligator, you name it.”

Changing times

Both hunting and guns are viewed differently in today’s society from the way they were when the club was founded, Gutwillig concedes, which prompts some angst.

“The Acton Rod & Gun Club has had its name for 100 years, but if I could change the term ‘gun’ in the name, I would,” Gutwillig said. “It’s become very polarizing to a lot of people in the community.”

Jordan-Arthur says she’s one of those community members with “conflicting views about guns” but adds that the club has been a “very wonderful and healthy social club for people when there’s a lot of loneliness, especially for men.”

The club presents “a wonderful opportunity where people from the community in different walks of life find common ground around a shared activity,” Jordan-Arthur said. “That’s a good thing.”

Gutwillig, chief technology officer of an investment company, said that’s been his own experience.

“I could normally never have friends who are firemen or postal workers, but I do now because I know them from the club,” Gutwillig said. “Demographically, people who are interested in outdoor sports are not limited to one type of work environment or another. In that sense, [the club] is a real melting pot. That’s the magic of the club.”

Inside the clubhouse

The non-profit club has annual dues of $300 with no initiation fee. It sits on 48 acres of forested land off Strawberry Hill Road and includes a large, manmade pond formed by a dam, where the fishing derby is held.

The clubhouse is a log cabin-style hall that holds 150 people and includes a large stone fireplace, a commercial kitchen, and a bar serving wine and beer, Dane said.

“One of the great attractions of the club is you can get a beer for three bucks,” he said. “The bar is tended by members of the club. Everything is done by members. [The club] has no employees at all.”

Lynn Jordan said as her granddaughter Hazel was reeling them in at this year’s fishing derby, people began to speculate about what method the 9-year-old might be using to achieve such success.

“Her grandfather’s method is what she had,” Jordan said. “[The club] made that fishing tournament so much fun for the kids. It’s a place for families.”