Marie I. Andree

1911 – 2005

~In Memoriam~

Marie Andree, a breeder, exhibitor and AKC-approved bulldog judge from Indiana, was a member of the Bulldog Club of America (BCA), Division II. She was inducted into the BCA Hall of Fame as an Individual Contributor for more than 35 years of extraordinary service to the club.

Mrs. Andree received her first bulldog pet on her ninth birthday in 1918. She became active in the breed as a breeder in 1938 when she raised her first home-bred litter. She was a registered nurse who assisted her husband, Dr. George W. Andree, a veterinarian in northern Indiana. They joined the Bulldog Club of Indiana in 1941, and they bred and showed bulldogs for almost 12 years at Rensselaer, Ind, finishing their first champion in 1946.

Dr. Andree became licensed to judge bulldogs by the AKC during the early 1940s, and judged the BCA National Specialty at New York in 1946. Following his unexpected death in 1949, Mrs. Andree resumed her nursing career. She later relocated to suburban Chicago, Illinois, where she was a hospital nursing director for about 20 years, retiring in 1977.

Several prominent bulldog breeders, such as Dr. E. M. Vardon, who knew of her prior experience and success as a breeder and exhibitor, convinced her to apply for her judge’s license, and she judged her first assignment in 1956. She judged dozens of specialty shows from coast -to-coast in the U.S. and in both England and Japan. Her final assignment as an Intersex Class judge was in 1998 during BCA National Specialty Week at Oklahoma City.

As a longtime member of BCA, she served several highly productive terms as national Education Chairman in the mid-to-late 1980s and again in the early 2000s. It was during that time period that she and her son, Bill, also raised and finished 13 home-bred champions under the kennel name of Duralyne Bulldogs.

As Education Chairman, she advocated the first publication in 1986 of the popular Bulldogger Digest (known as ‘the best of The Bulldogger" magazine from 1972-1989) and played a major role in establishing Junior Showmanship and Obedience as regular events during BCA’s National Specialty Week.

She introduced the BCA member club and division Newsletter Contest at the National Specialty and staged the first AKC/BCA Judges’ Education Program at the Houston BCA National show in 1989. As Education Chairman, she also published and distributed several thousand educational pamphlets and flyers during the early 2000s.

Always a prolific writer, in her spare time Mrs. Andree helped author a hard cover book The Bulldog in 1998, which is part of an owner’s guide series to a happy health pet. It was published by Howell Book House, MacMillan USA.

Marie not only devoted many hours of service to the betterment of the breed, but also as a club officer and long-time member and as former secretary of the Chicago Bulldog Club. After she retired Marie was elected president of the Bulldog Club of Indiana and later elected to honorary life membership.

She will be remembered for her dedication as a BCA National Council member, knowledge of the bulldog breed, and her many innovations as BCA Education Chairman – but perhaps more so for her well known outspokenness and popularity as an impartial dog judge. Marie served on the BCA National Specialty judging panel a record six times.


 

Return to BCA main page

 


© 2009 The Bulldog Club of America