Franz Dutzler's Obituary
Franz Dutzler, 86, passed after a long battle with cancer, May 24th, 2026. He is preceded in death by his family in Austria. He leaves behind his loving wife of 60 years, Launa Kay Vander Linden and their only daughter Taunya Jean Brandon, 58, her husband Joe, 56, and their 3 daughters, Dauna Ann 27, Jeanna Pearl 24, Senna Rae 22, wifes siblings Robert Vander Linden, Michelle MacNamara, Linda Lukeheart, and their children.
The family, who are sensitive to perfumes, ask that in lieu of flowers, donations be sent to Columbia Grace Foundation or any other cause you support, thank you.
Memorial service will be held at his home 555 - 17th street in Ogden, Utah, 84404. at 5 pm to 8 pm on Saturday, June 6th. BYOC – bring your own chair, a potluck will be served. Contact 385 – 244 – 7272 for questions or condolences. He will be cremated and his ashes scattered at his favorite fishing spot.
Franz Dutzler was born in Upper Austria February 15, 1940, in a small town called Sierning. It is situated near the Steyer River. He is the third child of Franz and Maria Dutzler
Life in Sierning was as normal as possible with a war going on until Franz was 5 years old. An American solder came by their home with several trout and asked if they would exchange them for some potatoes. Franz thought that they were the most beautiful and best tasting thing he had ever seen. It was this first sight of a trout that started Franz in pursuit. He started asking questions: what were they? Where did they come from? How does one catch them? The next 15 years of his life was spent watching pursuing and catching trout, often by hand in a little brook called Mill Creek. This was illegal as most fish in Austria are privately owned. The chance of ever being able to legally fish for trout in Austria was just a dream because only rich people could afford the cost.
Franz finished school in Austria, excelling in art classes with water color portraits. He also learned to play the Zither that his father also played professionally. By the time he was 12 he was playing for parties and other get togethers. His father also hand crafted beautiful Zithers for sale. Franz took an apprenticeship in metal working and started to become a Master Black Smith like his Father and four more generations of Franz Dutzlers before him had been. It was soon apparent that more money could be made in a factory as a constructional fitter, so he went to work in a factory. The boredom and inequities of work, impossibility of being able to fish and the thought of adventure, started Franz looking around for a better place to live.
When Franz was 20 he emigrated to Australia to learn English and seen the world. The almost free fishing in Australia was like a paradise to him. He worked on the railroad for one and a half years and fished the Murrimbidgi River. Then he moved on to become an apprentice cook under a German Chef in the Snowy Mountains At the Man From the Snowy River Hotel south of Sydney. There he spent all his free time in the summer fishing the rivers in the area and learning to fly fish. He spent all winter skiing, his second love. From there he went to Sydney to work at the Chevron Hilton Hotel as an apprentice cook.
Franz, then heard about the fantastic fishing in New Zealand from a chef that he had worked for in Australia so he emigrated on to New Zealand and worked at the Milford Hotel at Milford Sound. He spent many hours fishing it's beautiful prolific rivers and walking the Milford track. From there he went to work at the Hermitage Hotel at Mount Cook. During this time he learned to sculpt butter and worked as a Buffet Chef rekindling his enjoyment of art work. He also started painting again with water colors. While working there he also met his wife, Launa, who if from St. Anthony, Idaho. They were married in New Zealand and came to the States by ship through Australia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, Hawaii, Los Angeles and Vancouver British Columbia to Yakima, Washington to meet his in-laws. He and his wife bought a house there and their daughter was born in Yakima.
Franz went to work for the Chinook hotel as night Chef and fished the Naches and Yakima Rivers. In the Yakima River, Franz caught his first Steelhead and started a lasting fascination with the beautiful powerful ocean-going Rainbow Trout. Their beauty started him on his search for a way to preserve his catches permanently. He naturally turned to taxidermy. This medium, however did not please him. The fish just never came out looking like a live fish.
Franz and his family moved to San Francisco to work for the Miyako hotel and to further his Chef's career. In doing so he sacrificed some of his fishing. He still kept working with taxidermy and even tried casting in resin. Even with his previous painting experience he was never satisfied with the outcome of the mounts.
In the two and a half years he lived there he really learned how to fly cast at the pool in Golden gate Park. Franz had the help of many of the old-timers that belonged to the casting club. He spent many happy hours there watching the tournament casters and perfecting his own casting by observation and free advice, which was so generously given. He was especially helped along by Jack Horner, who has since passed away. He will always be remembered for his deer hair flies.
One really bright spot while living there was going to the Hunters point P.G.&E. Plant outlet at day break when the tide was just right and catching Striped bass with a fly. It was his first experience with large fish on a fly rod. It was exhilarating, but he was told by other fishermen that he hadn't lived until he caught a Steelhead on a fly.
At this time Franz and Launa decided that San Francisco wasn't necessarily the best place to raise their daughter, Taunya, so he looked on the map to see where he would most like to fish next and settled on Eugene, Oregon. He went to work at the Eugene Hotel as Assistant and Night Chef.
The first year there Franz tried fly fishing for Steelhead and wasn't successful. Then by a stroke of luck he met Jon Comstock while fishing on the McKenzie River. Jon grew up on the North Umpqua and had fished successfully for years for Steelhead. He contacted his friend, Jerry Myers, who took Franz up the North Umpqua in the fly fishing only area and showed him the runs and pools. He finally caught his first Steelhead on a fly. Franz's fishing friends in San Francisco were right. He was really living. He spent many years fishing the North Umpqua River, This made him even more determined to preserve what he caught. It really hurt him to have only his memories and a few pictures to look at and to revel in.
After working five years at the Eugene Hotel, Franz moved on to Sisters where he worked at Black Butte Ranch as Head Chef. Besides the constant pursuit of the best place to fish, he also wanted to be able to ski in the winter. Central Oregon fit the bill with both the best skiing at Mt Bachelor and HooDoo and fishing areas in the world. Franz especially enjoyed fishing the Deschutes River.
As a Chef Franz had experience making margarine sculptures and ice carvings that only melted away to nothing. It was like putting everything you have into a piece and having nothing but pictures to show for it. So when he happened to see a rather well made wood carved bird, it started him thinking about trying it him self. He bought some carving tools and then went to visit his in-laws in Naches, Washington. He was discussing the wood carving idea when his father-in-law said, “If you want to find out about carving, you will have to meet the Bird-man of Naches, Floyd Broadbent, he carved miniature game birds.” Dad took Franz to meet Floyd and visit his studio. He came home with an arm load of wood and all kinds of information. Franz and Floyd became a good friend and mentor and every time he visited the family in Naches he spent time with Floyd.
When Franz got home, he was ready to start carving in earnest, instead he took the day off and went skiing. There he managed to break his leg in seven major pieces and 15 smaller ones between the top of his boot and his ankle. Luckily he had only a couple of cracks in the ankle, so he was able to regain full use of his leg. After a week of lying at home watching the neat soap operas on day time. T.V. And complaining about it loudly. He realized that he had to do something to keep his sanity, so with his leg propped up on a chair in the middle of the bedroom he started to carve in earnest. The next three months everyone ate, slept and lived with saw dust everywhere, but he came up with a pretty good fish carving. Because it was his first try with oil paints he wasn't very pleased with the painting., but everyone that he showed it to thought it was real good. People bought these primitive pieces and it gave him the encouragement to keep carving and painting. The pro shop at Black Butte Ranch even put some in their shop for sale.
After working part time on his carvings, for 5 years Franz went full time. Going to many art shows and selling them at galleries. After 15 years in Sisters, Franz and his wife moved to La Pine, Oregon where they have lived since 1990. They built a house on the Little Deschutes River with a nice large shop. Where he also kept up his fishing. The Deschutes river, East Lake, Paulina Lake and Wikiup Lake are his favorite fishing areas.
Franz has been extensively studying all Trout in their native environment. He takes with him a Plexiglas tank that he had specially made for the this purpose. He fills the tank with water and places the live fish in it to take pictures of the fish alive for research and to study their movements. By working from pictures of the live fish, his end product is a fish that looks alive. Also by watching the natural movements of the fishes fins and tail and body movements his fish look natural. When Franz is studying a new fish he takes home one to draw and make sure that the form and proportions are correct. He has a catalog of many different species and sub-species of trout on file to draw from when he needs it. He now returns most of the fish to the river.
Franz tried carving with several woods before he decided that kiln-dried Western Red Alder was the wood best suited for him. It has just the right amount of hardness to work easily and it sands to a super smooth finish. It is also a wood easily available in this area. He also likes using a local wood.
Franz transfers the drawing of the body form to the wood then roughs it out with a band saw. Shaping, filing, sanding and carving, create a smooth contour. Then he carves out the details of the head and tail and engraves the scales. Then fins and tail are mitered into the fish. Final carving is done around the fins and glass eyes are set into the sockets. Franz buys flint fish eyes and paints them the color he needs and the ones you buy are generic and not always the proper color.
The wood is sealed with Varathane, then he paints the back olive or brownish and the belly white. From there he begins to blend the hues that make the background of the scales. A fish has to be painted like you are putting clothes on it. First the under clothes. Next the scales are each painted individually. The larger the fish the more colors are used to make each scale look right. After the scales are finished the dark spots are painted on the fish. Then the scales are high lighted. The use of the oils very thin and high lighting makes the fish appear translucent. The fish are now mounted in as natural setting with driftwood and river bottom with carved rocks, often with nymphs, frogs or small bait fish, which are also carved. All is covered with a plexiglas Vitrine to protect the piece. Franz also makes open pieces to order.
Through Franz's studying and carving, he has come to know how beautiful the native and wild fish are compared to stocked fish (Hatchery fish). He has discovered how the environment of each stream or lake works on the fish to adapt a fish from each watershed that is distinctively different from a fish from another stream or lake. The environment can change color, character of spots and body structure. He believes that we should let the wild and native trout live and stop destroying it through poor fisheries management, indiscriminate stocking of the fish that compete with the native fish for food and space and indiscriminate logging. There are even people that destroy these native trout through poaching in closed streams and spawning beds. Franz is trying to make people aware of the beauty of the native trout through his carvings and to get the message out that we should respect and save these fragile and beautiful fish that God has made for us.
Each of Franz's carvings is a masterpiece of color and form. The perfectionism of the Austrian back ground has come through again as each piece is perfect before it leaves the workshop.
In 2015. Franz moved his studio to Ogden, Utah to be close to his daughter and family Where he is still carving fish to order.
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