Biographies

ALL-WAYS PREPARED

ALL-WAYS PREPARED

BIOGRAPHIES

 

Marty Simon Founder, Director & Chief Instructor   My outdoor career began at age 9 when I was introduced to scouting.  I stayed with the Boy Scout program until I was 21, working my way up to Explorer Advisor, council level.  After that approximately 3 years was spent hiking, camping, fishing, hunting and trapping throughout northern New Jersey and southern New York.  In 1963,  I was inducted into the US Army.  After basic and advanced infantry training I was sent to explosive ordinance school, combat demolitions school and jungle survival school in Panama and then off to Vietnam. After returning and being discharged I went back to my love of camping and the outdoors. In 1970,  I reenlisted in the army, eventually serving over 17 years, mostly as an instructor.  During this time I also attended small arms specialist school, arctic and temperate survival school, desert survival school and back to Panama for instructors survival school. In 1978 I became an advisor for the National Guard.  While in this position I further attended many schools including recruiting, career counseling, army professional education center, land warfare, BTMS and other schools.  In 1984 I left the US Army returning home and establishing The Wilderness Training Center. At this time I ran programs for US Air Force Pilots. In 2000 I changed the name to  The Wilderness Learning Center. Also during 1984 to present I have taught at North Country Community College, Clinton Community College and Mater Dei College and Vermont Outdoor Women, teaching programs on survival, land navigation, herbs, wilderness medicine and health. During my career I have taught US Army and Air force, Italian, German, and Canadian troops.  I also served on the Quebec, Canada council of Boy Scouts as training officer for adults during which time I received my Wood Badge. All together I have over 45  years experience teaching outdoor survival and related subjects.  I am a licensed New York State Guide, former Region 5 Director of the NY State Guides Association (NYSOGA)and a current Director at large,  a member of the Vermont Outdoor Guides Association (VOGA) and certified in Wilderness First Aid and CPR.

Aggie Simon Program Director Aggie grew up in the small farming community of Putnam Station, just south of Ticonderoga, NY, where she spent as much time as possible outdoors.  She collected everything:  leaves, bugs, rocks, feathers; enjoyed picking wild strawberries and blueberries, did a lot of fishing and camping, and occasionally helped out on the neighbor's dairy farm.  Her childhood explorations of the local fields and woods instilled upon her a great love and respect of the natural environment that remains with her to this day.  This passionate love of nature makes her perfect for the Wilderness Learning Center which she's been associated with since March 2000. We could not put on the quality programs we do without Aggie; her meticulous attention to detail ensures that everything runs smoothly.  In her additional role as Field Assistant she takes on the added responsibility of assisting the instructors in almost any capacity.  Whether it be demonstrating how to make cordage, setting up a figure 4 trap, or describing a useful wild plant, Aggie is always there to lend a hand.  Her claim to fame though is serving as our Camp Cook (or as she prefers to call it:  "chief cook and bottle washer").  She makes all of the delicious meals served at the school (you won't have to brown bag it or have to go off site to get a meal).  Her homemade apple pie is a favorite among students.   When not busy with the school she and Marty run an outfitter/guide service.  Aggie is a Licensed New York State Guide and is certified in Wilderness First Aid and CPR.  She's also a member of the New York State Outdoor Guides Association (NYSOGA).  She also assists Marty during the many seminars he conducts throughout the eastern United States.  In her spare time you'll find her and Marty doing what they love:  canoeing and primitive camping.

George Hedgepeth   Special Instructor          (Edible & Medicinal Plants and Primitive skills)            George Hedgepeth has been passionately interested in wilderness living, primitive culture and skills, and useful plants since he was a child.  His family in Michigan and Alabama taught him about chasing fish and picking greens and blackberries.  He read authors like Jean George, Scott O'Dell, Richard Graves, Euell Gibbons and Larry Dean Olsen voraciously, and spent as much time as he could developing the skills he found in their books. While in college, he found an opportunity to teach some of these skills while working on archaeological digs.  This spurred him to develop his abilities further, and in 1992 he started the Great Lakes Primitives, a group that focused on pre-iron technologies.  He also started leading groups into wild areas for week-long survival training with Darryl Patton.  All in all, George has taught and studied wild plants, flint knapping, survival, and primitive life ways in environments as diverse as southern swamps, the north woods, high and low desert areas, North Atlantic Islands, and the Alaska coast. George is also a high school teacher, working in a program for at-risk youth near Flint Michigan since 1992.  He teaches history, psychology, economics, world cultures, and survival skills programs for students between 14 and 19. He works with adult groups as well, presenting women in the outdoors programs sponsored by several groups. After working with us on several programs I can attest to the fact that he is an outstanding instructor with a great sense of humor, an expert in all primitive skills, a good friend, and a great asset to this organization.                                   Bobby Plude  Instructor Marty has known Bobby since 1999 when they met at a sportsman's show.  They kept in touch off and on and now we are pleased that Bobby joined the Wilderness Learning Center in 2006 as a Journeyman Instructor. After his first year with us he has been elevated to a full instructor status.  Bobby's down-to-earth and warm personality makes him  a welcomed addition to our school.  He first got interested in the outdoors from hearing stories told to him by his grandfather who was a forest ranger and an avid outdoorsman.  Many tales revolved around his great-grandfather, a French-Canadian, and great-grandmother, an Iroquois native.  The seed was planted and Bobby's interest in the outdoors began.   He's an avid hunter, trapper, and fisherman.  He's taught survival short courses for local hunter safety classes.  He's an accomplished bowyer and crafts his creations from white ash and hickory.  He also makes primitive knives using files and deer antlers.  Bobby is a retired corrections officer with over  24 years.  He's trained in weapons, chemical agents, unarmed defense tactics, and hands-on extractions.  He also works for an explosive company and has taught explosive awareness classes to various police departments.  He's been training in martial arts since he was 12, and if that wasn't enough he's been skydiving for 9 years.  But his passion remains the outdoors and he's passing this passion on to his two daughters, who love to hunt and fish.  Bobby loves to teach people; and finds it especially gratifying to see the look on a student's face when he or she learns a new skill and knows how to put it to use.  His skills make him a valuable asset to our school and we're glad to have him onboard.  All the students he has worked with give him high praises for his teaching ability and his patience.                                                          Kevin Estela:                                                                                                                          Instructor   Kevin Estela has been interested in outdoor survival since he was a child. Entertained by stories from his father’s jungle survival in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation of WWII,  Kevin grew up with a desire to learn more about the outdoors. At a young age and throughout adolescence, his father taught him many practical survival skills. He grew up hiking, skiing, fishing and woods bumming with friends and family. He spent over 10 years working as a seasonal kayaking and canoeing guide on the Farmington River in Connecticut and 5 years working at a busy outdoors retail sporting goods store. Kevin’s formal outdoors education includes off-road driving, winter mountaineering, hunting and firearms safety, wilderness first-aid, primitive survival skills, traditional bushcraft skills and of course wilderness survival through the Wilderness Learning Center. Kevin is a certified PADI scuba diver, avid power boater and saltwater fisherman. Kevin’s passion for education translated into teaching High School History full-time in Bristol, CT. Kevin spends as much free time as possible getting out on the water or in the woods in anyway. Whenever possible, Kevin loves to share knowledge and know how with anyone willing to listen, practice and learn. Kevin worked for one full year with us and has now earned the title of Instructor.  He is also a moderator on knifeforums.com where he contributes equipment reviews regularly. Although he isn’t officially a resident of  New York, Kevin considers the Wilderness Learning Center  his second home and Marty, Aggie, Bobby and George a second family away from his own. Kevin is a great asset to the school. His teaching style, personality, and knowledge will be appreciated by all.             .