Bubbly and Positive Personality, that is what I think of when I think back on Ken Gordon…Always positive and putting others first…Here on a late night Saturday, and just learned of his death from this past week…
First met Ken Gordon over at the Sports and Hobbies Unlimited Sporting Goods Store, in the Lawndale Shopping Center…The team as Sports and Hobbies, with Jeff Swammey, Dave Farris, Lynn Stadler, and Big Ken Gordon were great…Just a great group of young men working to help others with their sporting goods and sports equipment needs, and making sure all the teams that they served were going to look their best, when they took to the field or the court…
Ken Gordon was a big man, but he was a very helpful and always a positive person…When you left seeing Ken at the Sports and Hobbies Store, you would feel pretty good about yourself and your situation, because Ken Gordon had a way of making others feel and look better…
After he left Sports and Hobbies he went into teaching at Western Guilford High School…I remember seeing Ken one day at the Wendy’s over on Summit Avenue back in the late 1980s, or early 90s, and he was doing some lunchtime reading for one of his classes he was taking over at UNCG, so he could get his teaching degree…
Ken Gordon earned and got that teaching degree and began teaching and coaching at Western Guilford High School…Ken was probably on staff at Western Guilford as a teacher and coach for say 20 years…He did a great job, and his students and the athletes he taught and coached loved him…
Ken was pure LOCAL…He graduated from Grimsley High School, then entered the Marines, and came out and worked and operated the Sports and Hobbies Unlimited Sporting Goods Store, and then he went back to school at UNCG so he could get that teaching certificate, that allowed him to enter the teaching profession at Western Guilford High School…
Mr. Gordon was an outstanding and highly repspected coach and teacher, and as we mentioned, he was loved by his students and his teaching peers thought the world of Ken Gordon….
I saw him over at Western Guilford back in the Spring of 2024, on the night Western had the ceremony to name the baseball field in honor of former WG baseball and football coach, Chris Causey…Coach Gordon looked older than he did the last time I saw him, but that is becoming true for all of us…He was always moving a bit slower than back in the earlier days, but we can all check that box too…It was always a good occasion when you got to see and spend time with Ken Gordon….Just such a positive influence to everyone he met and came in contact with…
Going to miss Ken Gordon and do know that he made his mark in a positive way, while he was down here on Earth, and my feeling would be that he is now looking down on us from Heaven up above…Great man, educator, coach, husband, father, and grandfather…
RIP:Ken Gordon and thanks for the memories and still will never forget that staff at the old Sports and Hobbies Unlimited Sporting Goods Store…There you at SHU, with Ken Gordon, Jeff Swammey, Dave Farris, and Lynn Stadler….Almost like the days of old with Gary Thomas at Bocock Stroud Sporting Goods Store…Then you had Charlie Teague and others too….
But here today we remember Ken Gordon, and must say one more thing for Ken….Ken, Thanks for a job well done, in all you did, here in Greensboro, N.C. and beyond…….
Kennon Alexander Gordon Obituary
**********Sorry for the lateness of this Obituary, but just got the news of Ken Gordon’s death tonight by way of Facebook.**********
“To tell one story about Ken ‘Coach’ Gordon is to tell a thousand. There was always a saying for everything and always a lesson to be learned. There was a curiosity in his questions and a seriousness in his answers; a laugh that shook your chest and a hug that would warm your soul. His love was large for his wife, his children, and his grandchildren. He loved his students, players, fellow coaches, and fellow teachers. He loved to make those around him laugh. He loved the Marines, the Braves, the Western Guilford Hornets, his favorite NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon, his church, and his church choir. As a teacher and coach, he went above and beyond to bring the best out of his students and athletes.
Ken grew up in Greensboro and graduated from Grimsley High School in 1969. He was a US Marine and then owned Sports and Hobbies before graduating from UNCG in 1994 and teaching AP US History at Western Guilford until retirement.
Heaven has now gained this beautiful soul and a giant of a man. Ken passed peacefully surrounded by his family on Wednesday night, January 29.
He is survived by his wife of 30+ years Lynn Moore Gordon, his son Brett Gordon and fiancée Tracy Cadorette of Greensboro, his son Reed Gordon and wife Cayce of Greensboro, his step-son Preston Arrington and wife Amy of Inverness, Mississippi, his step-daughter Courtney Arrington Dunstan and husband Tyler of Durham, and his beloved grandchildren: Reece Gordon, Katie and Kelly Arrington, and Cohen, Stephen, and Haven Dunstan.
‘The Celebration of Life’ was held on February 8th at 11:00am at Oak Ridge Methodist Church (in the Family Life Center) with lunch to follow.
Oak Ridge Methodist Church – 2424 Oak Ridge Rd, Oak Ridge, NC 27310
Please join us to celebrate Ken’s wonderful life. Share a few stories of your own via email – coachgordonmemories@gmail.com
In lieu of flowers, memorials go to Oak Ridge Methodist Church – Choir Fund or AuthoraCare.”
Also add the name of Dean Harrison to the sporting goods greats…The guys at Sports and Hobbies, Bocock Stroud, and Dean Harrison and the Harrison Family at Graham Sporting Goods….