My first interaction with Dave was when I submitted an article on an accurate .17 Remington I was working with. A few weeks later, a letter from P.S. Magazine arrived and was opened with high hopes and a small amount of trepidation. There, in big, bold, red letters was the word:
REJECTED
On the back side of the sheet of paper was a hand written note.
"Since you are working with a .17 Remington, it's obvious that you must be somewhat diminished of common sense and will need special handling. If you're up to it, I'll edit this tome and publish it.
I'd suggest you head to a local book store and avail yourself of copies of Writers Digest and Writers Forum magazines. If you persist in sending me articles, it will greatly reduce my efforts in editing as I have little time for such nonsense.
A complimentary copy of Precision Shooting featuring your article and a check for $300 will be arriving within the next few weeks. Don't get a big head over this." -Dave
I liked him immediately.
From then on, I worked hard on writing and true to his word, Dave edited very, very lightly on subsequent articles. He enjoyed collaborating on article ideas and always had some wisdom to add. I remember having an idea for an article on Randy Robinett...I called Dave and asked him if I could do it in an interview format. He got quiet and said: "It's cold and rainy out. That's the best idea I've heard so far today." Out of that came
'Confessions Of A Ballistic Idiot'.
As you knew him better, you saw that his acerbic whit was often directed at himself. In one of the P.S. magazines, he recounted how he was actually leading in the Agg at a big match. His commentary on his own thought process as he fumbled away his chance at glory is truly, truly genius writing. He was a true Editor with a capital 'E'. Old school tough....like Perry White in the Superman comics. Those with thin skin need not apply.
Dave was always true to his word with me. If he said he would pay you '$X', you got '$X'. If he said he'd do 'this' and you said you'd do 'that', it was a done deal. No muss, no fuss. Bada bing, bada boom. Done.
That's in stark contrast to a very popular interweb shooting forum that solicited me for some extensive writing/testing and offered goods in lieu of cash payment. The writing and gun testing was done but the goods have never to this day arrived. I'll check the mailbox again today. Not....
A little Brennan style business lesson might be in order, there.
Dave always enclosed a Far Side comic in his letters. Here's the one I got with his first letter back to me:
As he often wrote in in Precision Shooting in reference to a shooter that had passed away:
We are diminished.
Good shootin'. -Al