With the sad news of Mike Gretz's passing this weekend, I've found myself reflecting a bit on my own modeling memories. Back in the very late 70's when I first got into gas modeling, Mike Gretz was one of the very first "names" I came to recognize. There were no hobby shops within a 100 miles of where I grew up, my main connection to that seemingly distant world was my trusty Sig catalog. I remember paging through it practically every evening, dreaming and making my "wish lists". Looking at the catalog ads for all the Sig kits I remember always taking note the names of the designers, thinking these guys must be super cool, to me they seemed like modelings version of Hollywood's biggest stars.
Many years later, attending the annual Sig C/L Championships in Montezuma, IA, I was lucky enough to meet and hang out with Mike, that modeling hero from my youth. From the very first meeting I found Mike to be "just another guy", humble, generous, and just an all around nice guy who loved aviation and modeling. I was a "late comer" to discovering and attending that annual contest, only making it from about 2008 and on. I wish I would have discovered it sooner.
Looking forward to that event as much as I did I always made a point each year to arrive at the field by Friday morning, usually being the first person to arrive for the weekend. Many times Mike would be just finishing up the mowing, always leaving a perfectly prepped field for the weekend. I many times offered ahead of time to be there early enough to help but Mike always denied and had it covered. I think he was the only one that Hazel would let run the mower, but just as much I think Mike was that dedicated to making sure everything was perfect for the event and contestants. It was always a perfectly organized contest and then always a sad moment for me when the weekend was over and I realized it was time to head for home. Thoughts of returning to that Sig contest and catching up with all of the "C/L friends" was something that I looked forward to each year, a lot. It also helped keep me motivated during the long upper Midwest winter building season.
Most forum followers here do, but I'm sure there are at least a few that may not realize that Mike Gretz was a long time employee of Sig Manufacturing, and was right up until his very recent passing. He was the main spark plug behind the annual Sig C/L Championships as well, that excellent Midwestern contest that ran for 25 years.
One of Mike's famous designs was the "Twister" C/L stunt model. As my own small tribute today I just placed an online order for a new Twister kit. I ordered it directly from the Sig website, it only seemed right to get it directly from the source. I encourage as many of you as possible here to do the same.
Thank you for the memories Mike, you will be missed.
Topic: Mike Gretz/Sig Twister (Read 1158 times)
