Dean Goodson, My Friend:
In your lifetime you will only have a few friends that you know you can count on. I mean when the chips are down and there is no one to turn to, there are a few friends that will help without asking. Dean Goodson was a friend like that to me.
Dean passed away today, November 13, 2011 at 10:40a.m. He passed away peacefully at M.D. Anderson Hospital. Dean was lucky to have been doing what he loved when his illness hit him. He and his wife Judy were prong-horn hunting in New Mexico when a brain clot hit him and put him into a coma. He had a great love for hunting and guns, but most of all; he loved hunting with his wife, Judy.
I met Dean more than 20 years ago when I started doing gunsmithing for him. He was the first person to tell me I needed to learn how to teflon guns. With his help, I learned how to teflon coat guns and was one of the first gunsmiths to offer that service. Anytime I had an engineering question or a problem, I knew who to call Dean and he would get me an answer. Dean and I came out with a custom action for rifles made from aluminum with a steel insert for the lugs. All of the rifles made with this action were numbered DG—- in reference to my friend Dean. Dean had a great love for guns and was always working on them in his home workshop. Many times he would try something which would not work and he would bring the gun to my shop so I could help put it back together the right way. I remember Dean wanted to build his own rifle. I told him we would do it on weekends. We spent every weekend for a month threading and chambering barrels, lapping actions and installing them in fiberglass stocks. Dean did all the work with me looking over his shoulder so he didn’t mess things up. His finished rifle shot great and even looked good and different.
Dean loved to hunt but he couldn’t sit still in a deer stand. He would try to stalk up on white-tail deer, which is hard to do, but Dean didn’t care he was having fun and he didn’t need to shoot the biggest deer on the ranch. He loved Africa. I helped him book his first safari to South Africa. I believe he has been back 10 or 12 times since his first trip. My son needed a job when he graduated college and Dean stepped in again and gave him a job working, guiding and helping with the biology on Dean’s corporate ranch. Michael worked for Dean on and off for several years until he could land a permanent position. Dean was also very active in the Safari Club and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. He was always there willing to help but he would stay in the background, never asking for praise or showing off. Dean was the type of person you could count on to do his job and not to complain about it.
I will miss Dean Goodson very much but I know he died doing what he loved and with who he loved. I just hope I can be so lucky when it is my time to take that last hunt.
Kerry O’Day