Kerry,
I was so very sorry to hear the news of your dad's passing... He meant a great deal to me and many new shooters whom he freely helped with great advice!
The "General" or "High School Harry" as he liked to be called, was very kind to me when I got started in BR, in teaching me many of the basics of shooting in order to become successful at this crazy game. I can still hear him.... "You're not getting this, Neary" "Watch that 80 yd. flag at Holton"...!
"Winning 2-Gun aggregates is not from the proliferation of shooting small groups, but more the absence of big groups"! Boy, we had a lot of fun!
I really enjoyed going to shoot BR matches at Holton each year, knowing the "General" would be there and would be an easy target for me to tease him constantly, ....all weekend long!
As a new shooter, I can succinctly remember shooting in the Holton Match in July of 2000; whereby on Sunday afternoon the heavy mirage totally washed-out all the rings on our 200yd. targets. I began to complain incessantly "how could we shoot an agg when we can't see the rings of our targets"? After hearing enough of my whining, Perry came over to me and gave me the best advice I would ever recieve, as to "how to shoot in heavy mirage! Much to my amazement, his advice, which I adamantly doubted, worked extremely well, as I shot my first "screamer" group at 200yds. without being able to see ANY rings on my target!
Oh, the many nights of story telling the Eastern Region shooters enjoyed at Holton listening to Perry while we reloaded our cases and enjoyed our beverages... The stories got better every year!
As most Eastern Region/ Holton shooter's know... Perry was also blessed with an acute sense of smell, many believe more than 100X greater then that of a Blood Hound... as he could sniff out ANY cooler, buried or hidden anywhere, up in trees or on top of your RV. Didn't matter... When the light turned to (very..slight) dusk, Perry was going to find your hidden cooler!
Rest in peace, my friend! You will be in all my prayers!
Jack