Greetings:
My name is Chris and I'm Gary's (GPIdaho) Son In Law. I wanted to let you all know that Gary passed away in the early A.M. hours of 3-15-2024.
At age 24 I taught Gary how to load his own ammo, this would have been in the year 1994. He was extremely interested and very quickly picked it up after being shown some of how certain tools did certain things and why. Within a 3 year period he had everything related to reloading you could imagine! He not only liked the precision and cost savings but also felt a deep responsibility to protect his and others rights concerning responsible firearm ownership, operation and especially the joys of the shooting sports!
In 2013 Gary had his first encounter with cancer. It was then during a very long and painful recovery that he was mostly confined to his home but luckily had internet and found out about lead casting and started his studies in it. This is what brought him to Cast Boolits in 2014. He was incredibly motivated by what he was learning on his own but especially what this site and all of the helpful members were sharing with him and amongst others!
I simply cannot come close to how many times I heard things like "I learned a really cool trick on Cast Boolits today" or "In swapping and selling I got a great deal on, or sold a ..." He was a very dedicated individual who taught me the joys of how nice powder coated boolits worked out! We enjoyed many years of shooting together when we could. Gary could make something out of very little and it would most always be of large significance. His laughter and sense of joy for life and family was indeed tremendous!
He never fully recovered from the damage of the extreme doses of radiation and chemo he was given. Sometimes I would notice that even though he felt happy his huge smile took a little more effort once in awhile. Gary had a huge belly laugh that could fully radiate an otherwise mostly dark room. He stayed the course and later in life enjoyed his Winter months in Florida and never gave up his love for firearms and fishing and was cancer free!
Late in 2023 the cancer came back and was without mercy. I want to thank everyone here that he dealt with for ABSOLUTELY prolonging his life throughout the years and that is meant in no small way at all!!
He would not like me yammering away about all of this so I'll just borrow some of his own words that I heard many times throughout the years. "Alright, enough of this kind of stuff, lets go do something fun like shooting or fishing or maybe both!!"
My memories of him will always include his huge laugh and smile but now my smile is MUCH larger knowing his no longer takes any extra effort at all!
Thanks so much to you all for what you did for Gary and the sport!
Chris
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Originally Posted by dverna
