Jump to content

Doug Richardson


Recommended Posts

Its been just about a year since Doug passed away down in Belize. I saw the post about his website and I thought I would share a few Doug memories

 

Doug was a gifted old school pencil and drafting paper draftsman. I have a bunch of his old drawings of his tools and so forth and they are so well done is this age of CAD where you draw on the computer and then print, the quality of his drawings is almost unbelievable.

 

Doug had a good, full life and he lived to be 82 (or 84). He got stuck down in Belize by COVID - he was afraid to come back to California - and while there he became sick and passed away fairly quickly. I do not know the cause of his death.

 

Doug was very well off. I do not know where he got his money but for him Thompsons were an interest, hobby, and passion - not a necessity to make a living.

 

He designed and built a big house - hurricane proof - on the beach down in Belize. I was never there but he described it as lagoon, house, beach. Somewhere on this forum there is a picture of him walking his dog thru knee deep water in the ocean down there.

 

He was in Costa Rica before Belize. He had beach front property there as well and sold it to the government because they wanted to make a national park. He sold it and relocated to Belize.

 

He would routinely travel to Europe and was always on the lookout for Thompson stuff.

 

Gordon Herigstad and he were good friends. Gordon of course is famous for his Thompson Serial Number book. Gordon also did a lot of traveling and visited and photographed some of the rare Thompsons in museums in Europe for himself and for Doug.

 

Doug was in some respects a stickler for detail - when he reprinted original manuals or catalogs he made them a slightly different size so they would not be confused with originals and printed on the back cover restoration by Doug Richardson. Any parts that he duplicated he also marked with an R (especially his M1921 actuators) so they would not be thought to be original.

 

At the same time he had what he considered to be improvements to the receivers - screw

on grip mounts, round extractor slots, M1 angled rear on M1928 receiver, etc. Each of which made the receiver less original but he thought better.

 

He never had an FFL because he did not want the ATF to be able to stop in anytime. And so, he never made guns.

 

He had two M1921 dewatted Thompsons. I saw them before his family took them back to Florida, but I did not have a chance to give them a close look. One thing I mentioned before - he put leather disks on the face of the welded chambers so that when the guns were snapped it was not steel hitting steel. A great idea and the only time in all my years I saw this.

 

So thats a few memories of my good friend Doug.

 

Bob

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doug did do a gun for me known him over 30 years.mid 80's he did a early Numrich 21ac with lower and 21 style stock.and a kit. and removed barrel and put on a 21ac with comp display model to allow shipping. was really nice. Sold it as cased set to a buddy i showed it to, who was a Chicago officer. I am sure this many decades later he still owns it.Doug and Gordon good friends i supplied them whatever info i picked up. Also had #177 of the first batch of guns. i am sure a few have earlier number.but not ever seen one posted or for sale lower #..if you do post it up.RON K.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We’d see Doug and Gordon almost every year at the TCA Western TSMG Show and Shoot. The event unfortunately is no more.

 

it’s been about 10 years or so. My Wife and Doug would sit and talk for extended periods of time at the show. I could never get a word in. Anyway, he was an asset to all who knew and had a chance to interact with him.

 

He was quite an interesting man and might I say, eccentric. You might call him sort of a contrarian so to speak.

 

Glad to have known him.

 

David

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I met Doug twice on visits to his shop to pick up receivers. What a great guy!

 

Part of the deal on the second one was that he needed a ride to the post office in Chatsworth. It wasn't far.

 

There I was, in the car 10 minutes with the World's greatest living Thompson authority, and all we talked about was "the lousy service at the Post Office"! ...Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...