Grayum Steele
Grayum Steele of Fort Sumner, New Mexico, is familiar to skeet shooters in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and wherever he went, but he was certainly the Number One driving force in New Mexico skeet shooting for more than 30 years. Back in 1948 when the tall, lean cattle rancher began shooting registered skeet, shooters were few and far between in those wide-open spaces, but Steele set up a shooting club on his own ranch and encouraged others to do the same. Along the way, he introduced skeet to and coached more new shooters than anyone in New Mexico. He single handedly put on many shoots ‑ ‑even state shoots. When the state organization was formed, Steele wrote the by‑laws and served several terms as the president of the New Mexico Skeet Shooting Association. In 1962 Steele was elected to be the first NSSA Director from New Mexico ‑ ‑ a post he held for several years. He was an active member of several NSSA Committees, including the Executive Committee, the Finance Committee, the Classification Committee, and the Rules Committee where he was instrumental as the vice chairman working effectively in preparing rules changes.
In addition to receiving the Ray Boller Award, Grayum Steele was also a well‑known skeet competitor. He won the high over‑all championship at the New Mexico State and Open Championships in 1953, 1954,1960, 1964,1965, 1970,1971 and 1978. In addition to other state and regional championships, he held the world 28 gauge long‑run record in 1961 and 1962. Grayum was an avid sportsman, hunting antelope on his own ranch and on travels to Africa, Mexico, Alaska and other parts of the world.