Love him or hate him, “Formerly Famous Gunwriter” Dean Speir was a force of nature.  It seems that his unique voice recently left us on 26 October 2023.  I’ve been holding off on this for two weeks, hoping to see definitive confirmation. Since no one else seems willing to post an obituary, here is my contribution.  (Dean, if you are merely pining for the fjords, you need to contact us!)  

Dean was born 12 September 1940 to Marianna and Frank W. Speir, a MIT graduate and US Army Reserve Lieutenant.  The elder Speir was a bit of a legend in the Corps of Engineers, and later, the Transportation Corps, primarily for his development work on the DUKW.  Frank really deserves his own article.

So Dean spent the first 15+ years of his life as an Army Brat.  This was cut short when Frank tragically died on 8 July 1956 in Dunkirk, NY during the crash of his personal Beechcraft Bonanza.

We don’t know much about Dean’s early life other than he attended Choate preparatory school. He then attended Adelphi University, majoring in English and Creative Writing.  After his graduation in 1963, he then served two years aboard the West Indiaman Cruises’ windjammer “Maverick”.  In 1966, Dean married his first wife, Inga, the mother of his two children.

Dean helped start the alternative paper Moniebogue Press, which ran from July 1971 to October 1972.  Dean served as the ad-man, writer, and self-described “agitator.”

Dean began writing under the pen name “Waldo Lydecker”  in 1977 as a film reviewer for The Hamp­ton Chronicle-News.  Back in September 1983, while still reviewing movies and writing a newspaper column, Dean decided to use his press credentials to cover the first North American-hosted IPSC World Shoot (VI) in Yorktown, Virginia, and to see what the more refined version of his local “sandpit combat shooting” was all about.

Dean mentioned that he was hoping to meet the founding father of IPSC, Jeff Cooper, and see World Champion Ross Seyfried successfully defend his title.  While his two side goals were not met, he did make the acquaintance of Ken Hackathorn.  Ken took cognizance of Dean’s “Press” badge and said: “Writer, huh? You should be writing for the gun press… Gawd knows that they could use some fresh blood.” He further offered the name of someone at Harris Publications in New York City to contact.

However, it took one more straw to push Dean into the gunwriting field – “Fat Frank” Pristera, a salesman at Edelman’s gun store off Route 110 in Farmingdale, Long Island.  According to Dean, Pristera was an ignorant blowhard when it came to guns, and it became simply too much for Dean to tolerate.

Starting in 1987, Dean wrote over 600 articles for publishing houses and individual magazines including Harris Publications (Combat Handguns and Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement), FMG Publications (Guns, American Handgunner, and Shooting Industry), Practical Shooting International, Petersen’s Handguns, Germany’s Visier, the NRA’s American Guardian, Gun & Shooter, The Shotgun News, American Firearms Industry, Machine Gun News, Law Enforcement Technology, Police Product News, DBI Books, Women & Guns, and The New Gun Week. 

It was the latter bi-weekly column as the “Industry Inteligencer” (February 1990 – May 1994) that got Dean dubbed the “Gun Writer from Hell!” by former President of S&W,  Steven T. Melvin.  Melvin was so disturbed by Dean’s investigative skills that the secret R&D program for the Sigma pistol was dubbed “Project Waldo.”   What most people didn’t realize is that Dean maintained an FFL as “Main Street Magazine”.  Executives often didn’t realize that by talking to gun dealer Dean Speir that they were also talking to investigative reporter “Waldo Lydecker.”  

Dean was ultimately outed as “Waldo” by Mark Moritz and Cameron Hopkins in the pages of American Handgunner in 1992.  Another blow came in 1994 when The New Gun Week’s editor, Joseph P. Tartaro, dragged his feet on publishing  Dean’s major investigative report on the curious phenomenon he had termed the “Glock kB! Syndrome.”  Incensed, Dean quit.

Glock USA seized upon the occurrence, buying ad space in the spot where Dean’s column formerly appeared.  Their public relations flack, Sherry Collins (formerly of S&W) even spread the rumor that she had gotten Dean fired.  However, what started as a false claim of suppression quickly evolved into an active campaign to get Dean blacklisted from the industry.  

Despite edicts from the Harris Publications’ ad department that Dean’s byline was not to appear in any magazine featuring either Glock, SIGarms, or Galco advertisements, editor Harry Kane continued to buy Dean’s articles, assigning new cinema inspired nom de plumes such as “John D. McGee,” “M.R. Tibbs,” and “Floyd Thursby”.   It was still obviously Dean’s work for anyone who had read his previous writings.  Clues included the continued mentions of the Pine Barrens Range with lead photos incorporating a W. Waller & Son range bag and an Outers Pistol Perch.

It was around this time that Dean also discovered the “Disinformation Cowpath” – the World Wide Web.  From February 1994 until they went dark in October 2003, Dean was a moderator for Prodigy Internet’s member forums, what eventually evolved into the Sports.Rec Community.  Members of the latter formed the basis for Fernando Coehlo’s own internet gun forum, which went under various names – Your American Backyard, EOTAC, and Gun Hub.

The first two names not coincidentally matched up with Fernando’s post-Triton Ammunition business ventures. The final renaming came as Fernando was prepared to sell off the forum to Verticalscope. Fernando was originally the major patron of Dean’s website The Gun Zone.  Dean was very hurt after Fernando pulled his financial support for TGZ after selling his EOTAC clothing business to The Freedom Group (pre-Remington Outdoors).

Dean’s online gruff persona rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.  He didn’t tolerate lazy thinking or poor writing.  Dean didn’t hate Glock pistols; he was even known to carry a G21, and later, a G30.  Dean did despise uncritical brand fanboys, and this got him banned from many online forums, including Glock Talk.  

Dean was a multiple graduate of John Farnam’s Defensive Training International, Gunsite, and Mas Ayoob’s Lethal Force Institute,  He also trained with Ken Hackathorn and the late Pat Rogers’ E.A.G. Tactical. He was a Life Member of the National Rifle Association. In August 2001, he was even awarded a Lifetime Membership in the Glock Shooting Sports Foundation!

In case the name wasn’t an obvious clue, Dean co-designed and patented the Mitch Rosen Extraordinary Gunleather’s “Speir Off-Side” magazine and flashlight carrier.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5533657A

Guns weren’t Dean’s only passion.  He owned W H B Creative Graphics, a small ad and graphic design company.  At one point, Dean served on the Suffolk County Film Commission.  He also served as a member and later, the Chairman of the local Zoning Board of Appeals (September 1985 – May 1996).  Dean even made two unsuccessful runs for village trustee.

Our condolences go out to Dean’s sister Gale, his beloved second wife Jeanne, daughter Marguerite (Peggy) and husband Martyn, son Colin and wife Michelle and granddaughter Elanora. 

We are diminished.