DECEMBER/JANUARY 2018 11to meet the brothers in Bay City, where I was
given the assignment to read the book manu-
script for e Gougeons on Boat Construction
and o er my thoughts on how it could be improved. e last
of the three visits was to the family’s Fourth of July picnic, I
guess to see if I was a good t. Meade o ered me the position,
which for a variety of reasons I regretfully declined. But we
became friends, perhaps in a way not possible if I’d become
an employee.
While GBI became a pro table business, developing new
product lines such as custom PRO-SET epoxies for other
industries, including aerospace, Meade was always a boat-
builder at heart. It became customary for new employees to
build a boat in the shop, where there was plenty of guidance
available. Current CEO Alan Gurski, Meade’s son-in-law,
built a Gougeon 12.3 when he came on board in 2007.
Meade loved to sail and he liked to keep things simple,
though on my last sail aboard Adagio he admitted there were
no more control lines le to add. e boat had been totallytricked out. He developed a keen interest in small wind-
driven boats. He and pal Hugh Horton used to get away in
the Whalesback Channel area of Lake Huron’s North Chan-
nel. Horton says Meade was always well aware that his father
had died of a heart attack (on Christmas morning) when
Meade was still a teenager. Taking control of his diet and
tness regime, Meade always stayed in great shape; indeed,
he won the North American DN iceboat championship at
age 58—a remarkable feat. And just this year he won his
class in the 300-mile Everglades Challenge from Tampa to
Key Largo—competing in a sailing canoe. (In his feature
“First Encounter,” on page 48, Jim Brown shares Randy
Smyth’s account of sailing past Meade in that race.)
Few gures in boatbuilding were more admired than
Meade—for his intellect, passion, dignity, and generosity.
—Dan SpurrHUGH HORTON
Above—Yellow Thing was one of Gougeon’s
many small boats devised for his sailing pleasure.
Right—Meade (left) and Jan Gougeon sail the
rst WEST System boat, the trimaran Adagio, on
Saginaw Bay, in 2009, for a 40th-anniversary story
in this magazine.DAN SPURRRovings170-ADFinal.indd 11 10/31/17 3:40 PM