Early 2018 I got an email from Dave Gordon Jr., of Gordon Composites. He was searching for a bow, that would fill a hole, in the collection he maintained at the corporate HQ of Gordon Composites in Montrose, Colorado. With their origins in San Diego, Gordon Composites was once known as Gordon Plastics Inc. makers of the famous Bow-Tuff fiberglass. After many years in San Diego the company decided on moving to Colorado and became Gordon Composites.

So, back to this bow Dave needed. It was a Gordon Plastics, Royal Huntsman, 54" hunting model. Dave had obtained my contact info through the mutual friend of a friend. It turned out I had the bow he needed and so I packed it up and sent it on its way to Colorado. All I asked of Dave was an open dialogue about the history of the company his father and uncles had started in the early 50's.

Around 2015, Gordon Composites was acquired by PolyOne, now known as Avient. Dave had been retained as a consultant but in early 2019 the new owners asked Dave to remove the collection from where it was displayed. A call from Dave soon followed asking if I knew a good place that might receive the collection. The San Diego History Center agreed and we started to make arrangements. I had already planned a month long trip to east coast upon my retirement in June 2019 so it was an easy thing to adjust my path a little bit to meet up with Dave and pick up the collection. I was supposed to meet up with his cousin Mike in Denver to pick up the packaged bows and continue over to Grand Junction Colorado to meet with Dave and go over the bows and determine which ones were to be given to the History Center. I only had a few hours to spend with Dave and we ended up talking so much we never unpacked the bows. He handed me a list and said the bows to be given to the History center were listed and I could keep the rest for my own collection.

Upon arriving home I started unpacking and unwrapping the bows I had picked up in Denver. A collection of Gordon Plastics/Clan Gordon Bows representing most of the complete line that the company had sold from 1957 to 1962. Any that were missing I added from my own collection. There were also a few bows that were not made by Gordon Plastics and even though Dave has had said the remainder could go into my personal collection, I thought maybe a mistake had been made when I saw what they were. Surely, since we had failed to review the bows, I'd picked up from his cousin Mike in Denver, this one wasn't meant to come home with me. So I called Dave immediately and told him what I'd found mixed in with the Gordon models. He assured me that it was OK, a little bonus for transporting the bows to San Diego.

While I'm not a Black Widow fan at all, I don't think I'll be getting rid of this one anytime in the future.