Biography

Terence Doyle was born in Bronx, N.Y. in 1954 to Francis and Patrick Doyle - a famous crime reporter in NYC He grew up in rural New Jersey and spent weekends and summers at his grandfather's cabin in upstate New York, learning how to hunt and fish. In 1964, his grandfather gave him pamphlets on taxidermy and Terry mounted up fish, birds and small mammals in his spare time.

After graduating from Bergen Catholic H.S. (1972) in Oradell, NJ, he attended Paul Smith's College, near Lake Placid, NY, getting a BS degree in forestry in 1974. Because forestry jobs were available only to women and minorities at that time, in 1975 he moved to Ft. Collins, Colorado and enrolled in to Colorado State University, majoring in Fishery Biology.
Three months before classes were to begin, his right Achilles tendon snapped of the heel bone during a back yard basketball game. The resulting injury wiped out his savings and it took 2 painful years before he could walk normally again. While trying to complete a 4 year course in two years, he had to live off of the fish, rabbits, deer and elk he caught.
With just a few classes left before graduation, he was informed by the dean of the Fisheries Department that none of the 8 to 10 white male students would be able to get a job in that field of knowledge. Disgusted with the reverse discrimination situation of the time, he quit college and decided to do taxidermy.

Because of poor finances, he couldn't afford to buy the premade manikins that other taxidermists used to mount animals and birds. Instead, he learned how to sculpt his own - often in remarkable action poses. By great luck, the Jefferson County Outdoor Education Laboratory School hired him to mount up many of North America's small to medium mammals and birds.
In the early 80's Terry started noticing the crowds moving to Colorado and the resultant air and water pollution that followed and decided to move to New Zealand. He hitch hiked the country for a month in December, 1983 and decided to move there in October, 1984. Three days before the move, while taking a van full of mounts to a client that collected his work, a speeding car crossed the center line of the highway and slammed into his vehicle head on. All of the mounts were destroyed, no money was made on many months worth of work and both Terry and his girlfriend were injured.

Without having the N.Z. Government's O.K. to move there, Terry moved to Turangi, on the North Island. The Tongeraro River, known as "the world's greatest trout river", was across the street from the house he was staying at.
Penniless, he put an ad in the local paper advertising his taxidermy business. Soon, an immigration official contacted him and said that he didn't have authority to be in N.Z. and couldn't work there and if caught working, would be expelled from the country.
So Terry lived off of the fish he caught and rabbits that a varmint control officer friend would give him.
In January of 1985 his girlfriend of 4 years, Jayme McLean joined him. A few days later, Jayme's mother called and said that she got notice from the N.Z. Government that his working permit was approved and that if he hired a local helper he would get permanent residency. The insurance money for the mounts destroyed in the crash was issued at this time.
The top N.Z. taxidermist, Paul Blackely, lived in the same small town, but there was plenty of business for both of them. Being an American and a taxidermist made Terry a local celebrity.
Things were going great until March 7, 1985. While swimming in the ocean, Jayme and Terry were swept out by a rip tide. 1/2 an hour later, Jayme drowned and only by a miracle did Terry make it back to shore. (They didn't know how to handle a rip tide and to go with the current). 220 people drowned in N.Z. that year.
The loss of his fiancee shattered Terry and he became suicidal and couldn't work for 18 months. In September, he gave up his dream of living in N.Z. and moved back to Colorado to be among friends and have distractions - to get the tragedy out of his mind.
The only thing that made sense of the accident was for him to dedicate his life to saving endangered species from extinction, in honor of Jayme.

In 1986 he moved to Aspen, Colorado and created the International Endangered Wildlife Museum. With the help of Gene Reardon, an attorney and Glenn Day, the founder of the Endangered Wildlife Foundation, the Museum was granted non profit status and given a 501C3 tax classification by the I.R.S.Aspen was the chosen location because of the large number of wealthy and influential people that lived and traveled there. People that could make an immediate difference in saving animal species.
For seven years Terry worked on creating the Museum. Once the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gave its blessing and agreed to provide permits for the possession of deceased endangered species, many of the top taxidermists and other wildlife artists committed to working on the project. Four major zoos, including the San Diego Zoological Park agreed to donate their dead endangered species to the Museum. Other specimens would be donated by the U.S. Government, confiscated from poachers. The finished Museum was to be four floors, underground. (See Museum Plans- for more info).
Unfortunately, Bill Sterling, then mayor of Aspen, who was at the forefront of the anti-fur, anti-meat movement wouldn't support the idea of having this Museum in Aspen because Terry Doyle was a taxidermist.
After 7 years of trying to make the Museum a reality, and going broke (he never took a salary, surviving by doing taxidermy), he gave up.

In 1995, without a studio for taxidermy, Terry started painting, doing mostly oils of endangered species.

In 1996 he created the first of his "Breaking Through" paintings - where fish leave the painting.

In the year 2000 he moved to Oahu, Hawaii where he continued painting and did some taxidermy. During that time the first fish sculptures were developed.

He moved to Maui in late 2002 continuing work on the paintings and sculptures. In 2005 he combined the fish sculptures with the paintings, creating a long flowing piece of art that goes from 2 to 3 dimensions and back again. Currently he lives in Kula, doing art full time.