Bio

Interested in knowing more about your gunsmith?  Here’s a brief bio:

    Born in 1958 in Martinsville, VA, at four years old my parents purchased a “gentleman’s farm” outside Martinsville in Henry County.  At 19, I joined the US Navy.I volunteered for submarine service believing this was a way to help protect our country and my family from what I believed to be the looming Soviet threat.  During my one-month shy of twenty-two years of service, I was a Machinist Mate, making Chief Petty Officer in only six years.  I served in various locations up and down the east coast, finally being sent to Norfolk VA where I spent the bulk of my career.  I used to joke that were I assigned to a pier it would “get underway” as I spent far more time actually at-sea during my career than most.I.  served briefly on two destroyers while waiting to attend nuclear power plant operation training.  Then I served on three separate submarines and a submarine “tender,” a service vessel that supplies, repairs, and refits submarines and her crews from anywhere in the world.  I retired in 1999 into a pastorate in the United Methodist Church.

    For eleven years I served as pastor of eight churches throughout Southside Virginia, from Amelia County, south of Richmond, to the mountains in Covington VA.  By way of explanation, in the United Methodist Church one serves at the behest and direction of a geographically defined “bishopric” and is reassigned to wherever the bishop determines annually.  Typically, pastors serve more than one church at a time, called a “charge” and I served one station church and three separate “charges.”  After repeatedly being told that because I was second-career I’d never be sent to churches with any serious chance of growth, I resigned my last pastorate in Danville VA.

    Then I moved back to Martinsville, VA to assist with my elderly mother and in search of work.  For four years I worked at the local community college designing, procuring, installing, provisioning, and servicing complex auto and semi-automated Audio/Visual equipment installations.  From here I moved to Chesapeake VA where I obtained a job doing A/V installations in the Tidewater area.  And in 2017 I retired to my current occupation as your local gunsmith, opening my shop 1/1/19.

   I’ve been married twice, have four children by first wife, two younger brothers, one deceased, and I live here in Elizabeth City with my four kitties.  I’m a lifetime member of the VFW, a Mason, have a BA in Religious Studies from Virginia Wesleyan College, and a Master’s of Divinity of Degree from Duke University.  And I’m an active member of Christ Episcopal Church in downtown Elizabeth City.

    For over forty years I’ve been gunsmithing my own firearms and those of family and friends.  I’ve been trained and certified by the American Gunsmithing Institute (AGI) as a “Master Gunsmith.”  I love guns and shooting and look forward to helping you with your firearms!

    So that’s a bit about me - now bring me your firearm for my help and bring the story that goes with/behind it!  See you soon.