Who We Are

Louise Terry

Louise has been involved in the shooting sports most of her life. Born in Ithaca, NY, she was introduced to bird hunting and skeet shooting before age 12 by her Dad, Larry Kolar, who was an avid pheasant hunter. In the mid-1970s, Larry was also the inventor and manufacturer of KOLAR TUBES which are full-length shotgun tubes with integral extractors and chokes which adapt a 12 ga. shotgun barrel to shoot smaller gauge shells.

A registered skeet competitor for almost 50 years, she is a 20-time Ladies World Skeet Champion, a 30+ year NSSA All-American, a member of the New York State Skeet Hall of Fame, the Georgia Skeet Hall of Fame and the National Skeet Shooting Association (NSSA) Hall of Fame. She has also been actively involved in all aspects of governance of the NSSA for 40 years, from serving initially as a State Director and Director-At-Large to becoming a member of the NSSA Executive Committee from 1998 – 2010. She served as the NSSA President from 2006-2008. She currently is serving as an elected Delegate from Florida to the National Sporting Clays Association (NSCA) Board of Delegates and has been Chairman of the Joint Finance Committee for NSSA/NSCA since 2008. She has also served on the Florida Sporting Clays Association (FSCA) Board of Directors and has been active in Florida for the past several years launching and promoting the FSCA Honeybelles initiative which has introduced over 500 women to the shotgun shooting sports.

Based on her own start in the shooting sports as a young girl, Louise has always been very interested in supporting efforts to promote youth development by encouraging youth to become involved in the shooting sports. She joined the SSSF Board of Directors in September, 2011 and was elected Chairman of the Board in April, 2012, a position she still holds. She remains active in registered shotgun shooting today, most recently focusing primarily on the Sporting Clays discipline.

Louise holds a BA degree from Syracuse University and had a 35-year career with the IBM Corporation. She is a Life Member of the NSSA, NSCA, ATA, and the NRA. Following her retirement from IBM, Louise and her husband, Bill, have lived in Vero Beach, Florida for the past 15 years.

Ed Fitzgerald

Born in Independence, Missouri, and raised in Dunedin, Florida, Ed currently resides in Atlanta, GA.  Ed is married to April (Nessler) Fitzgerald and has three grown daughters and one son as well as five grandchildren.  Ed played Basketball in college and holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis on Quality.

Ed entered into the prism of Shooting Sports through a very unorthodox channel. “I did not grow up in a firearms household.  My Grandfather was a Federal Fish Hatchery Manager and State Champion Shotgunner and my Uncle was a State of Missouri Park Ranger his entire career. Yet, it wasn’t until my first paycheck from United Parcel Service that I was able to purchase my first firearm.”

After a 20 year career ending as a Corporate Manager with UPS, his second career brought him to GLOCK where he oversaw many Marketing and Business Development aspects during the rapid growth of the firearms industry after 2004.

“Having seen great changes take place in all channels of the industry,  I have seen the personal accomplishments and struggles within.  One aspect that immediately stood out to me was that the industry desperately needed to embrace the issue of leaving a legacy of the Sport of Shooting for others to follow.  Developing relationships in the firearms industry is a much simpler task these days.  More and more people, as they age out of something they have loved to do all their lives, suddenly realize there is great enjoyment being around younger people who are learning and growing.  There is a great deal of personal worth developed by lending your time, talent and sometime funds to better strengthen a program that allows these types of programs to flourish.”

In 2021, Ed will enter his tenth year of serving on the Board of Directors of the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation.  “I have had the opportunity to work with some very great and wonderful men and women in my career.  People that would provide guidance and dispense leadership advice when I was desperately trying to learn and grow.  At this point in my life, I receive the greatest satisfaction when a young man or women steps to the line not understanding yet what is about to happen or if the outcome of preparation will be successful.  But when that time comes, and it does come, and they successfully hit the target, they begin, just as I began, down the path for future positive outcomes in their lives.”

Denis Karnosky

Denis Karnosky is a native of Livingston, Illinois, one of those typical small towns where hunting and fishing becomes a passion early in life.. He and Mary have two children and eight grandchildren. He began his association with what is now the SSSF as a coach with the highly successful Burlington High School shooting team in Wisconsin.

Now retired, Denis was a Managing Director, Head of Asset Allocation at UBS Asset Management. In addition to investment responsibility for global portfolios, he directed currency strategy across all portfolios, development of investment technology and risk analysis. Originally a Managing Partner and member of the Board of Directors of UBSAM’s predecessor organization, Brinson Partners, Inc. (Chicago), Denis’ group developed the framework for multi-asset, multi-currency performance attribution that has become the industry standard.

Prior to joining Brinson Partners, he was Director of Research and Trading with Conti-Commodity Services and Heinold Commodities. He was the Deputy to the Under Secretary of the U.S. Treasury and the Head of the Office of Monetary Policy Analysis in the Reagan Administration. Previously, he was Vice President of Research with the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. He has served as an advisor to private and public organizations in Europe and Latin America. Denis holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Duke University.

Chris Hodgdon

Chris Hodgdon was born in 1961 in Kansas City Kansas and has resided in Kansas all his life. He is a 1985 graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in Communications. Chris had 13 years in radio broadcasting before beginning his career in the family business. He is an avid big game and bird hunter, reloader, muzzleloader and has shot rifle competitively. After 25 years at Hodgdon Powder, Chris is now a Director/Trustee of the company.

• • Benefactor member of the NRA and serves on the NRA Shooting Sports Committee.
  • Member of the Kansas Rifle Association, Mill Creek Gun Club Desoto KS, Powder Creek Gun Club Lenexa KS and other hunting conservation groups.
  • Proud supporter of the Boy Scouts of America and is a Silver Beaver Award winner (the highest award an adult volunteer can receive).
  • He has two Eagle Scout sons. He serves in many roles at the Heart of America Council BSA and nationally.
  • Past Coach with the Scholastic Clay Target Program and serves as a board member on the Scholastic Shooting Sports Foundation.
  • Member of the Hodgdon Family Charitable Trust, Hodgdon Family Counsel and Chris Hodgdon Family Foundation.
  • Married to Adele for 34 years

Chris’s passion is to introduce youth to life skills (such as target shooting) that result in building confidence, teamwork and character in hopes that they become outstanding ethical leaders of their communities for tomorrow.