Who do you consider to be the largest "pioneer" in the business?

I was a part of a recent discussion that took place at a convention that I vended at and it grew into who we thought the largest contributor has been to the reptile trade since it's inception. The terms that were considered were, what did they introduce as far as morphs go, as far as availability goes, etc, etc. So I thought it would be nice to see what others thought as well.

Bert Langerwerf aka Agama International

Do I have to vote for just ONE??? Sheeeesh, so many different animals, and so many varied contributions...I'm not sure I could pick one.

I don't know anyone from outside the chondro world so just have to put in my .02 and give a vote for Trooper Walsh. Never a big time producer, but definitely a pioneer and accomplished a lot for my favorite species.

I am looking forward to seeing more results on this poll!

It is kind of unfortunate that the options you have put in your poll contain many people who have been in the business or hobby very short term and have done little more than work with one species. What about the originators in the 60's and earlier who did this when there was no money to be made and not many genetic projects to work with? You seem to have been going by who is spending money on advertising or putting the most self promotional articles in magazines.

People like Mark and Kim Bell have been in this industry a very long time and have worked with many many species and morphs at the ground floor. But then how do you explain putting Willbanks and the Sutherlands in that same list? No offense to those people, they are very nice people have great looking animals, BUT what have they done and how long have they been doing it? You leave off your list people like Applegate from the old days and people like Barczyk from current times who have done so much more. I think you need to re-think your choices for your poll and maybe do some research into "pioneers". Evan Stahl

I think it is hard to narrow down to just one...
Bob did a ton for the hobby, but so has everyone else on the list, plus countless others.
If I had to pick one, I would most likely pick Kevin at NERD. He had a care sheet on ball pythons I found on his site in the 90's that introduced me to the correct way of caring for snakes. Up until then I was doing the old fashioned heat rocks and whatnot....

Ian

I'm with Evan on this one. To me it's not who has the most morphs, or the neatest morph, it's the people who actually figured out how to keep and breed the herps. I was one of those who kept snakes back in the day, and every once in a while eggs showed up, some hatched some didn't, but it was mostly pure luck. Though I loved (and still do) herps, much to my chagrin, I didn't really put the effort into it that the pioneers did, to actually get to the "science" of successfully breeding snakes. Applegate already mentioned. Then of course there is Bechtel and his genetics work with corn snakes. Speaking of corn snakes your list seems heavy with people who work with balls, what about the Love's, and Rich Z. They've been around for a while and have made a living off of Corns, and morphs.....I can't even keep up with the corn morphs. Then there's the people who supplied "us" with snakes in the early days, especially "exotic" stuff, like Loius Porres.

I like how no one put Rich Z, he has done a lot for corns....

Originally Posted by reptilebreeder

I'm with Evan on this one. To me it's not who has the most morphs, or the neatest morph, it's the people who actually figured out how to keep and breed the herps. I was one of those who kept snakes back in the day, and every once in a while eggs showed up, some hatched some didn't, but it was mostly pure luck. Though I loved (and still do) herps, much to my chagrin, I didn't really put the effort into it that the pioneers did, to actually get to the "science" of successfully breeding snakes. Applegate already mentioned. Then of course there is Bechtel and his genetics work with corn snakes. Speaking of corn snakes your list seems heavy with people who work with balls, what about the Love's, and Rich Z. They've been around for a while and have made a living off of Corns, and morphs.....I can't even keep up with the corn morphs. Then there's the people who supplied "us" with snakes in the early days, especially "exotic" stuff, like Loius Porres.

Ditto.

the list needs to be redone with a little more thought into the names on it.looks like a list of newbys that have done nothing more than reproduce others animals.i know this post will piss off a few people,to bad.