Gaston Glock
Template:Short description Template:Lead too short Template:Use dmy dates Template:Infobox person
Gaston Glock ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 19 July 1929 – 27 December 2023) was an Austrian engineer and businessman. He founded the company Glock. When he entered the 1980 competition for a new Austrian service pistol, he hired two engineers who had worked on the development of HK's first two polymer-frame pistols, the VP70 and P9 models. The first Glock pistol, chambered in 9x19mm and named the Glock 17 because it was Glock's 17th patent, entered Austrian military and police service in 1982. It became one of the most influential and popular handguns of the 20th century, leading to a succession of other models in a variety of sizes and chamberings as well as an industry-wide trend toward polymer-frame, striker-fired pistols.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Early lifeEdit
Glock was born in Vienna on 19 July 1929.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref> He was conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a teenager near the end of World War II, after which he graduated from school as an engineer and joined a hand drill company.<ref name=":1" />
ManufacturingEdit
Glock began as a manufacturer of curtain rods in the 1960s, and knives for the Austrian military in the 1970s,<ref name="Family">Template:Cite news</ref> and did not design or manufacture a firearm until he was 52 years old. He already had experience with polymers from his previous business ventures. In 1980, he bought an injection-moulding machine to manufacture handles and sheaths for the field knives he was making for the Austrian army in his garage workshop. His earliest employees were from the camera industry and experienced in producing polymer components. His first production pistol was the Glock 17. It took one year to design and produce, and he applied for its Austrian patent in April 1981.<ref name="Barrett2013">Template:Cite book</ref>
Robert McFadden of The New York Times wrote that Glock's pistol: Template:Quote
Murder attemptEdit
In July 1999, Glock suspected that Charles Ewert, one of his closest financial advisers, had been embezzling funds. Glock confronted Ewert, who hired a French mercenary<ref name=":0">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> to murder Glock with a rubber mallet in a car park in an attempt to make it look like an accident.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Glock was hit in the head, but was able to fight back, punching the man until he collapsed on top of Glock.<ref name=":0" /> Both Ewert and the assassin were convicted of attempted murder and sent to prison.<ref name=":0" />
Personal lifeEdit
Glock married Helga Glock in 1958 and they co-founded the family business in 1963. The Glocks had three children, Brigitte, Gaston Jr., and Robert.<ref name= "Wives">Template:Cite news</ref> They divorced in 2011 and entered litigation over accusations that Glock engaged in racketeering.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Glock married his second wife, Kathrin Tschikof, that same year. She is a nurse who is 50 years younger and had treated him for a stroke in 2008.<ref name= "Wives"/> The lawsuit was dismissed in 2017.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Glock donated over €1 million to Austrian charities. He also gave funds to the Freedom Party of Austria.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Glock was described as a "reclusive Austrian billionaire" who avoided publicity and valued his privacy despite his famous invention.<ref>Robert D. McFadden, Gaston Glock, Inventor of the Gun That Bears His Name, Dies at 94, The New York Times, 27 December 2023.</ref>
Glock died on 27 December 2023, at the age of 94.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>