[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 98 (Thursday, July 18, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1296-E1297]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                        WILLIAM BATTERMAN RUGER

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JOHN E. SUNUNU

                            of new hampshire

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 18, 2002

  Mr. SUNUNU. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my condolences to 
the family of William B. Ruger who passed away on July 6 at

[[Page E1297]]

his home in Prescott, Arizona, and to celebrate the life of this true 
American original--inventor, manufacturer and business owner.
  Although he was not New Hampshire born, Bill Ruger embodied the best 
of the Granite State. He blazed his own trail, and in the process, 
turned his name into a recognizable symbol of ingenuity and 
workmanship.
  A native of Brooklyn, Bill Ruger was interested in firearms for 
virtually his entire life. He received his first rifle from his father 
at age 12, and as a teenager, read and studied as much as he could on 
firearms; the history of firearms, their design and how they are 
manufactured. Bill carried his passion for firearms to the University 
of North Carolina where as a student he turned a vacant room into a 
machine shop. His interest in firearms was so keen that while in his 
early 20's, Bill developed the preliminary plans for a light machine 
gun for use by the Army.
  After two years at North Carolina, Bill left to work at what he 
loved. He took a job in a gun factory and eventually opened his own 
business as a toolmaker; a business which did not succeed. Still, 
during that time, Bill kept experimenting with firearm designs, 
eventually perfecting a design for a .22 caliber pistol.
  In 1949, with a $50,000 investment from his partner, Alexander Sturm, 
Bill Ruger founded a firearm manufacturing business in a ``little red 
barn'' in Southport, Connecticut. As business increased, Sturm, Ruger 
and Company expanded, opening new plants including a plant in Newport, 
New Hampshire in 1963 to produce its own firearms components instead of 
paying others to do the same. Today, Sturm, Ruger and Company is world-
renowned for its more than 50 models of revolvers, police sidearms, 
target pistols, rifles and shotguns, and has developed a reputation for 
quality in specialized castings for products in the aerospace field, 
the automobile industry, medicine and the sport of golf. The company 
has grown to become America's largest firearms manufacturer and one of 
New Hampshire's largest employers; all under the watchful eye of Bill 
Ruger.
  Bill Ruger valued his employees and their craftsmanship and would 
never sell a product he would not have been proud to own himself. This 
attention to excellence is a fact to which generations of firearms 
owners, police officers and military personnel will attest.
  Beyond the success Bill Ruger enjoyed as a firearms manufacturer, he 
had many other pursuits and interests including his collection of 
antique firearms, 19th Century Western American art, and antique 
automobiles and was particularly known as a generous and charitable man 
who gave of himself and his finances.
  The foundation of his life, though, was his family--his son, William 
Ruger Jr., who now heads the family business; his daughter, Carolyn 
Vogel; his six grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. Each held a 
special place in his heart, as did the memory of his lovely wife, Mary 
Thompson Ruger, who passed away in 1994, and that of his late son, 
James Thompson (``Tom'') Ruger.
  In New Hampshire, Bill Ruger's legacy will remain for decades to 
come. He was an American original, and those of us fortunate enough to 
have been able to know Bill will truly miss him.

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