By Design - Winter 2017

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22 | By Design
David William Gordon’s
membership of the American
Society of Golf Course
Architects (ASGCA) had a sense of
inevitability about it.
Born in Mount Vernon, New York,
in 1922, Gordon was the son of
William F. Gordon—one of the
ASGCA’s 14 founding members. He
and his father would go on to form
a prolific professional partnership,
working together on a host of highly-
regarded courses in the northeastern
states of the U.S.
David Gordon was a lifelong
resident of Doylestown, Pennsylvania.
He graduated from Doylestown High
School in 1940, before serving in the
U.S. Army Air Force in the Second
World War. As part of his service,
Gordon worked as an instructor pilot
in B-24 bombers.
After the war was over, he attended
Pennsylvania State University and
earned a Bachelor of Science degree
in Agronomy. He remained a fan of
the university’s Nittany Lions football
team throughout his life.
Following the completion of his
studies, David Gordon joined his
father’s golf course architecture
firm—the William F. Gordon
Company.
While there, David designed a
number of revered courses in the
U.S. His designs can be found in
Delaware, Virginia, New Jersey,
Ohio, New York, Florida, his native
Pennsylvania, and Canada.
Among the portfolio of designs
Gordon created during his lifetime
are the courses at Saucon Valley
Country Club in Bethlehem,
Pennsylvania (pictured); Browns
Run in Middletown, Ohio; Stanwich
Club in Greenwich, Connecticut;
and Sunny Brook Country Club in
Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania.
Gordon also worked to redesign the
course at Doylestown Country Club,
and was rewarded with a hole-in-one
there in 1972.
Gordon was welcomed to the ASGCA
in 1951. He served as the ASGCA’s
president in 1959, was awarded
Fellow status in 1993, and became the
ASGCA’s longest-tenured member.
In the 1990s, Gordon presented
the ASGCA Foundation with a
1914 manuscript on golf course
architecture written by ASGCA
founding father Donald Ross.
Gordon, whose father had worked
with Ross, had found this historic
gem in his attic.
The manuscript was used by Ron
Whitten to create Golf Has Never
Failed Me: The Lost Commentaries
of Legendary Golf Architect Donald
J. Ross. Published in 1996, this
book would become a bestseller
and provided a new and fascinating
A life on
the course
REMEMBRANCE
Pennsylvanian architect David William Gordon
passed away this October aged 95. By Design reflects
on a career that saw him work alongside his father to
create many revered layouts in the northeastern U.S.