The Professional Outdoor Media association (POMA) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) have honored communications pioneer Doug Painter with the prestigious POMA/NSSF Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator award. Tom Gresham presented Painter with the award during the Shooting Hunting Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show State of the Industry dinner Tuesday evening.
“So many of us in this business have been richly rewarded by our experiences, whether high atop a mountain peak or hunkered down in a duck blind. We have made our passion our profession. But as much as our honoree has received from a lifetime out of doors, he has given back much more. year after year, he has brought his great talent, his wisdom, and his heart to bear in support and in defense of what all of us value so much and believe in,” Gresham said during the presentation.
Gresham also called Painter one of the finest writers in the outdoors world, and cited the fact that Painter headed programs to put the shooting sports before millions of people.
I’ve worked with Doug on many projects, including the groundbreaking television series Shooting Sports America on ESPN two decades ago,” Gresham said. “as the writer and producer of many public service announcements, featuring such stars as Bing Crosby and Robert Stack, Doug showed America that shooters and hunters are responsible citizens. Doug was a good friend of my father’s, and they worked together on many projects over a 30-year span. I’m delighted that the committee selected him to receive this award.” Painter’s selection brings the award full circle.
It was Painter who, as president of the NSSF, presented Grits Gresham in 2006 with the NSSF Lifetime Achievement Award, which became the cornerstone for the development of the Grits Gresham Shooting Sports Communicator award.