| Roy E. Weatherby | |
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Above: Camilla, Diane & Roy Weatherby, c. 1952 -- Roy Weatherby Founder of Weatherby Inc., Designer of the Weatherby Rifle
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| Born | September 4, 1910 Kansas |
| Died | April 4, 1988 (aged 77) Newport Beach, California |
| Occupation | Inventor, Businessman |
| Religion | Lutheran |
| Spouse | Camilla Weatherby - December 6, 1914- December 2, 2002 (aged 87)- Married 1934 - Until his death |
| Children | Ed Weatherby, Diane Darlene Weatherby (Holly) (Taylor) (1944–1996) |
Roy E. Weatherby was the founder and owner of Weatherby, Inc., an American rifle, shotgun and cartridge manufacturing company set up in 1945. Weatherby created an entire line of custom cartridges, and was one of the people responsible for the industry interest in high-speed cartridges. He created a custom rifle action to accommodate his high-pressure cartridges.
He grew up on a farm in Kansas. He later moved to Huntington Park, California where he and his wife, Camela, bought a Spanish style home located on 7672 California Street on the corner of Grand Avenue. Weatherby started manufacturing Weatherby Guns in his garage at the Huntington Park home. As orders for his guns increased, and social appointment pressed him and his wife to be away from home, his daughter, Diane, was often cared for by the neighbor lady, Emma Jones.
Weatherby firearms are best known for their very high-powered rifle cartridges, all bearing the name Weatherby Magnum such as the .257 Weatherby Magnum and the .460 Weatherby Magnum, and for the production of appropriately-chambered sporting rifles.
Weatherby came into the world of commercial cartridge and rifle making with a background of experimentation in cartridge wildcatting and was determined to develop a range of sporting rifle cartridges that would produce very high muzzle velocities, high bullet energies, very flat trajectories, and very hard-hitting characteristics at long range. Among those who influenced his thinking and products was the English riflemaker and cartridge designer David Lloyd.
Following the considerable commercial success of Weatherby Inc., Roy Weatherby established the Weatherby Foundation (initially known as the Roy E. Weatherby Foundation) as a non-profit, tax-exempt Foundation to educate the non-hunting public about the beneficial role of ethical sporting hunting, especially its contributions to wildlife conservation. It currently leads a national initiative to foster the development of educational outdoor expositions, and as at 2007 has sponsored 78 events in 19 of the US states, with combined attendance figures of nearly 1 million. The Foundation annually sponsors the prestigious Weatherby Hunting & Conservation Award.