Career
In 1998 Wixom gave the annual Juanita Brooks Lecture at Dixie State College in Saint George, Utah on the subject of Jacob Hamblin. In 2009 Wixom was the featured speaker at the annual Jacob Hamblin Days celebration in Kanab, Utah. Hunting and fishing books by Wixom include Fishing: The Extra Edge (2006), Personalized Fishing Guide to Utah (2001), Improve the World, Go Fishing (1999), Fishing and Hunting Guide to Utah (1990), Elk and Elk Hunting (1986), and Penny Pinching Guide to Bigger Fish and Better Hunting (1980).
Wixom helped organize the first chapter of Trout Unlimited in 1965, serving as its first president
Wixom also published a work of fiction in 1998, Benjamin Lowery and authored the written portion of the graphic arts book Utah, published in 1974. Wixom graduated in 1951 from South High School (Salt Lake City), has bachelor"s and master"s degrees in communications from Brigham Young University (Brigham Young University) in Provo, Utah, and completed some post graduate work in history at the University of Utah.
Starting his career in journalism prior to 1960, Wixom served as editor-in-chief of Brigham Young University"s The Daily Universe. By 1961, the The Deseret News, a daily newspaper in Salt Lake City, Utah, had hired Wixom as an outdoor sports writer
In 1970, Field & Stream magazine named Wixom their Rocky Mountain field editor, a position he held for 5 years.
Wixom was the founding editor of his own Utah Outdoors magazine and served as Wyoming editor for Western Outdoors magazine from 1981-1986 after moving to that state in 1981. He was also a frequent contributor to the monthly periodicals Outdoor Life and Sports Afield and served as chairman of the Fish Committee, Utah Wildlife Federation. During the 1960s and 70s, Wixom"s interests in hunting and fishing brought him into contact with wildlife conservationists and environmentalists working to preserve or restore clean air and water in the American West.
As he became increasingly outspoken in favor of federal regulations for clean air and water, The Deseret News named him their environmental editor, the first of its kind in the Mountain States.
Wixom collaborated with actor Robert Redford in 1972 to preserve the free flow of the Provo River through central Utah.
