Carl "Soot" Bredhoff
Year Inducted: 2002
Kahuku Ranch | Hawai'i
Kaupo Ranch | Maui
"Soot" Bredhoff expected his degree in animal science at Colorado State University would help him get his first job at a ranch. So he was surprised when at his job interview at Kualoa Ranch, Franny Morgan didn't even ask for his credentials - only to see him ride a horse.
Evidently he passed the test, because he went on to work for Kualoa the next two years. He was lucky to have fellow Hall of Famers Abraham Akau and Ed Hedemann as his "professors" during his time in "Ranching 101", as he calls it.
"Soot" is proudest of his contributions to Kaupo and Kahuku Ranches, where he had the chance to help improve bloodlines, horse herds, housing and worker relations.
But he also has his skills as a cattleman to thank for one of his best catches - his wife Judith. She was working as a schoolteacher in Ka`u, where she lived in a little cottage on the edge of a spring that rose and fell with the tides. A herd of cattle crossed the spring to investigate her yard late one night, and then got stranded there when the tide came in. She awoke to see their huge, curious heads looking in at her. When she tried to shoo them away, they paid no attention - and they blocked her way to her front gate. Finally she called the ranch and insisted a cowboy be sent to retrieve the animals. Soot was the "knight" who came to her rescue. "He didn't have a white horse, but he had a light-colored jeep," she says.