Alfred Charles Buck; Co-Developed Hunting Knife

Alfred Charles Buck, 80, who with his father developed the folding Buck hunting knife. Buck learned to make hunting knives from Hoyt Heath Buck, and together they began a business behind their San Diego home in 1948. Buck Knives Inc. has become one of the world’s premier manufacturers of knives, primarily hunting and pocketknives. It employs about 400 people in El Cajon and does about $40 million a year in business. The company’s first knives were sold by mail order. After 1961, marketing was done through dealers. Alfred Buck retired as chairman of the board in 1979 to travel and spend time speaking to Christian businessmen’s groups. His son, Charles T. Buck, now heads the company. On March 31 in El Cajon, of cancer.