By Mike LePore
Former AGA board member Gordon Castanza passed away on May 24, after a battle with cancer.
Gordon’s life was anything but boring and conventional. At the age of 20, he received a draft notice, and left college to serve in the Air Force for five years during the Vietnam War. Upon returning to civilian life, Gordon finished his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and went to work for the Alaska public school system. In 1984, when the school board wouldn’t let him take time off to compete in the Iditarod dog sled race, Gordon quit his job and competed anyway. (does this really surprise any of you who knew him?) He then spent several years in the 1980s working for a company that was instrumental in opening up free markets in China. He would later return to Alaska, obtaining his doctorate in his mid-50s while serving as a school district superintendent.
Gordon retired in July 2000, and moved to Gig Harbor, WA. In retirement, go became one of Gordon’s true loves, along with fly fishing and military history. He even found a way to get the story of the famous Atom Bomb Game incorporated into Don Farrell’s book Tinian and the Bomb. Gordon loved go’s beauty and historical significance, and was always delighted at the chance to introduce the game to others. I will miss spotting his wide-brimmed hat at future go events.
“I feel fortunate to have gotten to know Gordon,” said AGA president Andy Okun. “He took me fly fishing high up in the Rockies on the Wednesday off at the Colorado Congress in 2010, a chance to see him in his element, hat, shades, waders, and a quiet stream. He told me stories about his time in China, and witnessing the Tiananmen crackdown, being in the Air Force in Vietnam, his devotion to go, and getting to fish the ant fall on the San Juan River. Keep your line tight, Gordon.”
American Go E-Journal Managing Editor Chris Garlock added that “Gordon joined the EJ Congress game recording team when we were just getting started and was always a reliable and steadfast game recorder, insisting on using his own laptop, an innovation we’ve since adopted for the whole team.”
photos by Chris Garlock (top) and Phil Straus (middle); Andy Okun (bottom)
