Few bowhunters would recognize him. In a hunting camp, on the street, or walking his own factory floor, he wouldn't typically elicit a second look, even from those bowhunters who faithfully use the products he creates. It's highly unlikely you'll see him on television grinning over a freshly arrowed big game animal, or in the pages of a hunting magazine. Although he has had a huge impact on archery and bowhunting, he keeps a very low profile.

That's exactly the way Matt McPherson likes it.

"I don't care to be well-known. I'd rather be sitting in a café somewhere and overhear a bowhunter talk about how much he likes his Mathews bow," said McPherson, 51, founder of Mathews Solocam. "I didn't set out to make the most bows, or to make the most money making bows. I wanted to make the best bows.

"Money is secondary to me. That's a function of my upbringing. While growing up, we didn't have a lot of money and we were always worried about losing what we had. I grew to hate the stuff, because we always needed it."

The second of seven kids, Matt McPherson was the son of a pastor who liked to hunt.

Curiously, his mother hated guns, so to keep Mom happy, the clan took to hunting with bows and arrows.

"Dad would take my brother Randy and me into the woods, and I loved it," McPherson recalled. "Because we couldn't afford to buy a lot of things, I had to learn to make my own. When I discovered I could get a bow-making kit from Bingham Archery, I was ecstatic.

"Eventually, I started making my own compound bows in junior high shop class, using a lathe to fashion the wheels. It took off from there. In fact, in the December 1973 issue, Bowhunter Magazine had a photo of me with the first-ever compound with recurve limbs. I was 16 years old. I built my first compound bow about 1970."

McPherson designed bows all through junior and senior high school in shop class, and he also worked at a body shop where he learned about creating lines and artistic shapes.

Eventually, his passion grew into the largest bow company in the world in terms of gross sales.

But he does not forget his roots. Several years ago, after being invited to Las Vegas to receive an industry award, he contacted his junior high and senior high school shop teachers and took them along. You see, they were his only formal education. No engineering degrees hang on McPherson's office wall. He had no college education at all.

"I've always had an aptitude for engineering. I learn by seeing much more than by reading. I see things like a cam design in 3-D vision, and I'm able to rule out a tremendous amount of engineering before I even get to the computer. Then I just put down what's already in my head. I'm also a guy who doesn't settle for good enough," McPherson explained.