Henry L. Gourdine (1903-1997)

Henry L. Gourdine (1903-1997). The Dean of Hudson River Fishermen. , Every riverfront community had its well-known fishermen but some became legends. Growing up on Croton Point, Henry Gourdine was always drawn to the Hudson: “The river had a spell; I just had to go,” he said. As a young man, he tried working in Manhattan, but he quit and took up fishing for a living on the Ossining waterfront. , For decades, Gourdine ran fishing crews off a dock near the Sing Sing Kill, using fishing techniques not unlike those of the ancient Sint Sinck Indians. Striped bass, sturgeon, catfish, perch, eels, shad – Gourdine caught them all. He took pride in his work, whether it was maintaining his shanty, mending his nets or building a rowboat. While he lived nearby with his wife, Lydia, and three children, he liked to say that he'd “rather live in a shack by the river than a mansion in the hills.” , In 1974, when toxic chemicals were found in striped bass pulled from the Hudson River, Gourdine's days as a commercial fisherman were numbered. New federal laws limited the types and numbers of fish one could catch and eat. After retiring, Gourdine would still come down to his shanty to mend nets and weave stories of life on the river. “The Net Doctor,” as he was called, passed away in 1997; in a New York Times obituary, Governor Pataki called him “a state treasure.” In 2016, the Village of Ossining named its new waterfront park in Gourdine's honor.