Gaston Glock, the handgun inventor turned billionaire recluse, died on Wednesday, his namesake company Glock Inc. announced.
No cause of death was given. He was 94.
“Gaston Glock charted the strategic direction of the GLOCK Group throughout his life and prepared it for the future,” a statement on the company’s Facebook page said. “His life’s work will continue in his spirit.”
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His signature namesake firearm, which he designed at the age of 52, is used by most U.S. police officers and generates hundreds of millions of dollars in sales for his company, allowing him to achieve billionaire status.
Glock spent much of the later years of his life as a recluse as his company grew to become a firearm staple, arriving in the U.S. partway through the ‘80s and riding a crime wave to the top.
Glock later in life secluded himself in a heavily guarded Velden, Austria estate, often keeping out of the gun regulation debate that has consumed America as mass killings rise in frequency.
In 1999, he survived an attempted murder plot orchestrated by Charles Ewert, a financial advisor who had embezzled funds. Ewert was convicted of murder.
He married his first wife Helga in 1962 and had three children with her. In 2011 the couple split; she later claimed he cheated on her and sued for $500 million. Her case was ultimately dismissed.
Later that year, Glock married Katherine Tschikof, his nurse who aided him after a 2008 stroke.
