Lord, I hate it when my blog turns into an obituary column.
Two good friends are no longer with us. It was just belatedly announced that Tom Marx had passed away this past February. Tom was one of the true “industry insiders.” He began as a Chicago cop and then focused on the gun world, working at various times for Smith & Wesson, Ruger, and Blackhawk among others. His consulting encompassed design, engineering, and marketing. Marx specialized in handguns and particularly defensive handguns. I enjoyed watching his seminar on handgun concealment at the NRA annual meeting, for example.
This month we lost Greg Moats: shooter, gun writer, and historian of the craft. Greg had been at the legendary Columbia Conference held at world combat pistol champion Ray Chapman’s Chapman Academy in Columbia, Missouri in 1976 at which the International Practical Shooting Confederation was founded under the leadership of the legendary Jeff Cooper.
Greg had been present for a couple of landmark events in my own life. We had both competed in the very first Bianchi Cup, a tournament billed as the Wimbledon of pistol shooting, at Chapman Academy in 1979. Greg was in my very first pilot civilian class in 1981, also held at Chapman Academy. He and I spent some quality time together last month at Bill Wilson’s WC Ranch in Texas where Bill hosted a Fifty-Year Reunion of that 1976 event which led to practical shooting competition as we know it today. Greg was still and always kind, friendly, knowledgeable and a damn good shot himself.
I mourn the passing of such good people. Vaya con Dios, amigos.
