Gary Austin: Gone three years today.

[peter]

He may be gone but never forgotton....

Scott that would be a really nice gesture...

[WIXerGreg]

There was a thread on here a long time ago about what kind of pieces of warbirds people own. At the time, I lamented that I didn't have any. I came home one day to find a package from one Gary Austin with some rocker arms and other small parts from the P-38 Scatterbrain Kid. At that time we'd never met and Gary didn't know me from Adam, but that's the kind of guy he was. I miss his posts and I miss his humor.

This was also my first direct dealing with Gary. I too posted in that thread (or one exactly like it), next time I logged into WIX I had a PM from Gary asking for my address to send me some stuff. I probably hadn't even posted in one of his threads at that point let alone know him and he went out of his way to send me some stuff.

Gary was one of the guys that if you came in and saw he was the last one to post in a thread you opened it whether the rest of the thread interested you or not.

One thing he said comes back to me all the time and it holds true for so many situations (aircraft, auto repair, modeling, fill in the blank). It's a stupid piece of metal, make it do what you want it to do. I think he picked that up from somewhere else (Ezell?) but it's something I always remember him saying.

[Robbie Stuart]

Gary sure has been on my mind a lot lately, something about this time of year. Never met him in person, but sure miss him. Been thinking about you too Brad, hope you are well. Keep Jack straight for us.
Robbie

[CAPFlyer]

I only met Gary a couple times, but every time, he left me feeling good. Whether he was doing it outwardly or not, even when the worst was happening, he made you fell like he took everything in stride and good humor. I had inklings of the issues he was dealing with deep inside, but didn't realize it was as deep as it was until I received notice of his passing.

I will always be honored to be the one to present him with the WIX-sponsored poster at the Summer Staff meeting in 2008 -

[SaxMan]

Like most on WIX, I never met him in person, but certainly wish that I could have. To say he left us too soon would be a gross understatement. I am glad that I got to "know" him through WIX.

[Dan Jones]

I never met the man - spoke to him once or twice on the phone - but he sure seemed like a guy I would have enjoyed knowing. My condolences to all of you who did.

Dan

[Fouga23]

I live on the other side of the world. Never met him. But darn, I miss him! Still have his memorial sticker on my car. Without Gary, I would not still be in Aviation. RIP, my friend.

[muddyboots]

He invited me out to Austin Acres once, to pick up some scrap skin so I could paint an old fashioned pin up on it. I was in just as bad a place as he was back then, so I had to regretfully decline. I've always regretted that I didn't hop in my pickup and take him up on his offer- I missed meeting one of the greats. I sometimes wonder if he and I couldn't have helped each other through a dark time in our lives. I certainly wish I could have done something- anything- to change the outcome. But I barely made it through my own mess, and I think losing Gary may have helped me. I think his death to the same affliction I suffer from drove me to save myself that much more. Without his sad example I might have given up myself.

So thank you Gary, wherever you are tonight. Even your last sad act had some value, and I will never forget you.

[Mark Allen M]

Gary and I spoke a bit. We shared a couple things between each other. he sent be something, I sent him something. He invited me to his home, I invited him to mine. We talked about meeting some day, but the days ran out. He liked me and I him. He's gone away and I'm still here struggling with life's bumps and a silly website at times. We shared a few experiences about emotional struggles of which he wouldn't want me to ever give up. He convinced me, as I wish I could have convinced him. He's missed.

“The best thing for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honour trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then — to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn.”
― T.H. White, The Once and Future King

Gary would be happy if he knew I was still learning. And learning about what we all have a passion for here on WIX. Every image posted has a story to tell and a subject to learn.

M

Last edited by Mark Allen M on Fri Oct 26, 2012 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[maxum96]

He invited me out to Austin Acres once, to pick up some scrap skin so I could paint an old fashioned pin up on it. I was in just as bad a place as he was back then, so I had to regretfully decline. I've always regretted that I didn't hop in my pickup and take him up on his offer- I missed meeting one of the greats. I sometimes wonder if he and I couldn't have helped each other through a dark time in our lives. I certainly wish I could have done something- anything- to change the outcome. But I barely made it through my own mess, and I think losing Gary may have helped me. I think his death to the same affliction I suffer from drove me to save myself that much more. Without his sad example I might have given up myself.

So thank you Gary, wherever you are tonight. Even your last sad act had some value, and I will never forget you.

Thanks for sharing your own personal struggle and progress with us. I'm happy to hear that something good has come from Gary's passing.

[DH82EH]

I couldn't imagine a better place to make my first post.
I'm a long time lurker and like many folks I felt a connection to Gary despite never having met him.
I think I could definitely say that I've never felt such a sense of loss for someone I had never met.
I would eagerly open the Diamond Lil' thread to see what else he'd decided to, not only bite off, but chew, digest and accomplish! "If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough!" Right Gary?

A couple of friends of mine worked with he and Nelson when they came to work on Sandy Thompsons' Fury in Hamilton. They related tales to me that made me think "yeah, that sounds like Gary".
My one friend even gave me a VHS copy of "The Defender" that Gary had mailed him. Again, classic Gary!

I'll remember him for as long as I live.

Andy Scott

[Django]

Hard to believe it's been 3 years. I think of him often.

[DaveM2]

Jeez- that long already. We have a daily reminder of Gary in the CW office, Brad kindly packing up and sending Gary's huge pile of aviation photos for us to caretake.

RIP mate

Dave

[kalamazookid]

Like many others, I never met Gary. Like many others, I can't believe it's been three years since he's been gone. I enjoyed his posts and like a lot of you, I felt like I got to know him through following the B-24 project. I think his boundless enthusiasm and can-do attitude was what made a lot of us feel a sense of kinship with him, even though many of us never met him. That so many of us feel that way about him is a real testament to the type of person he was. I only wish I had been lucky enough to meet him.

[N3Njeff]

Seen jacks post on FB as a reminder. I got up and went into my office and cleaned off the dust from the N3N fuel Gage that Gary sent me.