Kastaway

Joe Kastaway Kulis was born Joseph E Kulis December 16, 1943 in Cleveland, Ohio and moved to Bedford, Ohio in 1955. He attended Chanel High School in Bedford. After graduating from Chanel, he attended Kent State University, graduating with a BS in photojournalism. Besides being the owner/originator of Kulis Inc. and Kulis Productions International,... and NTA member, Joe is a world-class hunter and fisherman, establishing his mark in both fields as an Outdoor Legend. At the age of 12, Joe became interested in the outdoors and in taxidermy due to the influence of his uncle, and took the Northwestern School of Taxidermy Correspondence. He then began to do taxidermy in his basement at home and upon graduation in 1969 he opened Bedford Taxidermy at its present location at 725 Broadway Avenue in Bedford. In the 1960s, Joe was a pioneer in the freeze drying process and renamed the shop Kulis Freeze Dry. He was the first to perfect commercial freeze drying in taxidermy and later sold freeze dry machines to the industry. This led to the creation of freeze dried bait, and he has taken the freeze dry business to new dimensions, restoring water damaged books and documents for major companies, libraries and homeowners. As the business grew, so did his shop, by expanding its size and adding more freeze dryers. The shop is still considered the largest in the country. With over 55 years of experience, Joes understanding of wildlife anatomy has become highly honed giving him the knowledge to become one of the worlds premier taxidermists, having done over 27.000 mounts. Very few artists have come close to that achievement. He was inducted into the Ohio Taxidermists Association Hall of Fame, Class of 2018. He also soon learned that to be successful, one needed to branch out as much as possible into many areas: During this time, as Joe ran the taxidermy, he also started a charter boat fishing business on 5 large charter boats named the Freeze Dry Machine Numbers 1-5 (including a 42 Hatteras) on Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and Lake ...Read More