Lefty Kreh was born Bernard Victor Kreh in Frederick, Maryland on February 26, 1925. During World War II, he served in an Army artillery unit in Europe and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He worked as a shift foreman at the federal government's bioweapons laboratories at Camp Detrick until the mid-1960s. He wrote a freelance outdoor column for The Frederick News-Post in the early 1950s and went on to write for other newspapers and outdoor magazines before becoming the outdoor editor for The Baltimore Sun newspapers, where he remained for 18 years before retiring at the age of 65.
He was a fly fisherman, casting instructor, and author. He wrote more than 30 books including Fly Fishing in Salt Water and Advanced Fly Fishing Techniques. He appeared on the fishing show Buccaneers and Bones. He designed a saltwater fly called Lefty's Deceiver, which appeared on an U. S. postage stamp in 1991. He died of congestive heart failure on March 14, 2018 at the age of 93.
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