[igli]

I just found out that Dean Grennell, one of my favorite gunwriters, died at his home on April 10. Was flipping through a magazine ("Gunworld") at a Dairy Mart, and on page 52 found an article by Jack Lewis telling a bit about Dean. I was aware that he must be 80 or more, but it still hit me hard.

He had the knack of writing as though you were his friend. He explained some things nobody else seemed to bother with, and made what can be a tedious subject enjoyable. I own several of his books, and learned much of my reloading methods from him. And he never came across in his writings as anything but a kind, warm human being with a *great* sense of humor. I actually read some of his anecdotes out loud to my wife, who also enjoyed his work. I never met him, but I sure did like him.

Godspeed, Dean. You won't be forgotten.

 

[Dean Speir]

I'd been working on this, and got side-tracked, I'm afraid.

Dean A. Grennell 1923-2004​

Dean A. Grennell, long time "Editor" of Gun World magzine, passed quietly at his daughter's home in Mission Viejo, California on 10 April 2004, still grieving for his wife who had predeceased him.

He was a heating and air conditioning sales from Milwaukee, Wisconsin before he moved to Southern California where he untimately hooked up with Jack Lewis to serve as "Editor" on the masthead of Gun World… he wasn't, of course, Jack was, as Jack was virtually all things in that periodical… and became the "Dean" of handloading writers.

One of the funniest, in juxtaposition, gunzine covers I ever saw was the issue following the September 1984(?) issue with "Introducing the Bren Ten by Dean Grennell" on the front. And there on the cover of the very next issue was "Reloading for the Bren Ten by Dean Grennell." Man wasted no time!

While he was still in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin (and guess what else was up there?!), he was prominent in the SciFi "fanzines." Google "Dean A Grennell" sometime, and you'll run across a lot of his material from 45-50 years ago.

I never wrote for him, but we wrote back and forth… couldn't talk on the 'phone with him because he was, indesputably, deaf as a post, a disability which came as much from too many years using .38 Special brass as an HPD, as from his WWII service as an Army Air Corps top gunner on, if I recollect correctly, a B17.

A good man… I'm looking in my files for a remarkable exchange we had back in the late '80s over some imprudent remarks Robert Stack (who was Gun World's nominal "Shotgun Columnist," another function in reality attributable to Lewis), made in the voice-over narrations of his NBC "Unsolved Mysteries" series. It's a sort of a "now it can be told" kinda thing.

 

[Clark Kent]

My reaction is similar to Igli's. I've been a fan of Dean's dating back to at least the 70s (my memory is too corrupted beyond that), and I think what drew me to his articles was the personal touch that seemed to reach out to novices as well as the more experienced.

Maybe, too, some of the rapport I felt with Dean comes from my own origin as a Wisconsin boy. I didn't know he was a Badger until I read Dean II's reminiscence, but now it makes more sense.

This is becoming the season of the giants falling.