The comment about the gap in different employments reminds me of an argument/discussion I saw a while back, and resonated very strongly with my own experiences.
I was intially educated as a gunsmith and of course have had my own personal shop and tools ever since then. Built my first rifle at 14 and my last one at 65. Actually WORKED as a smith for only 2-3 years before being lured into the nuclear power world, but have been continuously doing gun work on the side and hanging around my friends' gun shops all my life. IOW a quite full involvement in the gun world except for that pesky 40hrs/week required to earn a living!
My point is that even though the public written record may not show any specific evidence of this fellow's footprint in the gun world after a certain date, nevertheless I'd bet THE RANCH that he, like anyone who's truly interested in guns, remained an avid enthusiast. And he, like most of us, apparently got better with age (at least in some ways, grin).
The public written record is an excellent source of biographical info but the info is always cursory and incomplete at best. His (and my) employment and residence records would seemingly point away from guns in the later years but the actual personal/private work evidence says otherwise. Food for thought.
Regards, Joe
