75-year-old teacher still loves the great outdoors
SLIPPERY ROCK Paul Mershimer dedicates his life to spending time outdoors.
These trips away from civilization are steps away from reality for Mershimer, who spent his time teaching and selling insurance.
Mershimer, 75, who still goes out hunting as much as he can, has been hunting since he was 12 years old.
“Most of the time I hunt by myself,” Mershimer said. “My son and daughter-in-law come with me sometimes, but they are really busy.”
He still enjoys hunting and hopes that someday he will get to hunt with his grandchildren. But that will be a while. His grandchildren are six months and two and a half years old.
Mershimer served in the Marines during the 1950s and after leaving the service became a hunting safety instructor.
“I've been a hunting safety instructor for 47 years,” Mershimer said. “I think the hunting classes are extremely important because they help cut down on the number of fatalities.”
Mershimer said he hunts for deer, turkey and pheasants. He seldom hunts for pheasants because he doesn't have a hunting dog.
“I only hunt what I eat. I don't shoot things just to shoot them,” Mershimer said. “If I know someone in my family likes a certain kind of meat that I would shoot it and take it home for them.”
He said that even though he enjoys going out west, Pennsylvania is still his favorite place to hunt.
“I like going out west and hunting in the mountains,” Mershimer said.
“But I think some of the best hunting opportunities are in Pennsylvania.”
His favorite story about hunting isn't from a big kill or a trophy animal.
“One time I was in the woods and I saw a 12-year-old boy who was by himself and had shot a deer,” Mershimer said. “The deer wasn't dead so I helped him finish the deer and then helped him drag it up the hill because he was too small to do it himself.”
Mershimer was upset that the boy's parents weren't around to help him.
“I really wanted to scold his father, but I didn't want to embarrass him in front of his son,” Mershimer said. “But helping young people has always been one of the things I enjoyed most about being a safety instructor and hunting in general.”
