I was born in Spokane, Washington in 1953 and always had an interest in firearms, In 1975, I saw an article in Rifle Magazine about John Bivins and his contract with the state of Pennsylvania to produce a Bicentennial Commemorative rifle.
On a whim, I decided to write a letter to see if John could use some help with that. To my surprise, I got an answer and an invitation to come to North Carolina and meet him and to bring along a piece of my work, an absolutely dreadful long rifle I had recently completed. We instantly hit it off and luckily, John could see past the bad styling and clunky stock shaping and recognized some potential and offered me the job.
In September of 1975, at the age of 22, I packed up my '54 Chevy pickup and moved to Winston Salem, and my life changed forever.