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Former AWB President Passes Away Peacefully |
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Written On: January/February 2005 |
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On Dec. 5, 2004, C. David Gordon, AWB’s only Honorary President for Life, stepped outside his Friday Harbor home to fetch a load of firewood. He sat down to rest, slumped over, and slipped peacefully from this life to the next. Dave led our association for 22 of the 24 years from 1955 to 1979.
While working for AWB, Dave and Betty, his wife since 1942, found a piece of waterfront paradise on San Juan Island. When Dave retired from AWB in 1979, he and Betty moved permanently to the home they built on the island and its breathtaking views of the Olympic Mountains. It was there that he died. He is survived by Betty and their four sons: Dave, Stephen, Charlie and Gavin.
At AWB, Dave is probably best remembered for taking a relatively small group representing industry and turning it into the huge statewide coalition of businesses that comprise the organization today. In the process of changing from the Association of Washington Industry to the Association of Washington Business, membership grew from 700 to more than 3,300 businesses under his stewardship. And his legacy lives on; today’s membership exceeds 4,400 and continues to grow.
Though he rarely spoke about it, Dave was a proud of his service in both World War II and the Korean War. Part of the group that newscaster Tom Brokaw once called “the greatest generation,” Dave served as an Air Force officer in both conflicts.
Before coming to AWB, Dave worked as a lobbyist for Weyerhaeuser. While doing so he became acquainted with AWI and was groomed to assume the presidency when Ed “Deke” Davis retired.
Back then, AWI was four people working from a rented office in downtown Seattle. By the time Dave retired, more than 30 people worked in AWB’s building on Cherry Street, just a few blocks from the state capitol in Olympia.
Dave gets credit as well for the change from AWI to AWB. He figured there was strength — meaning political clout — in numbers, and that an association of businesses had many more potential members than an association of industries. In 1971, under Dave’s leadership, AWI disappeared and AWB emerged. And, he was right. As the number of members increased so, too, did AWB’s ability to positively influence legislation in the state’s capitol.
Dave will be missed.
In his honor, AWB has established the C. David Gordon scholarship fund for Business Week students. Business Week, an AWB economic education affiliate, started during Gordon’s days with the association. AWB has seeded the fund with a $1,000 donation, and the Gordon family recently added $250. Anyone can contribute to the fund by contacting Don Brunell at (360) 943-1600 or DonB@awb.org.
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