Glock, one of Austria's richest men with a fortune of more than one billion euros, has died at the age of 94, Austrian agency ABA reported, citing company sources.
The company, which made a profit of more than 500 million euros last year, promised in a statement that “the work of Gaston Glock's son will continue in the future with the same spirit.”
Gaston Glock invented a handgun in the early 1980s that became famous for its lightness, speed, and misfire mechanics, and became a weapon widely used by security forces and criminal gangs.
“With a vision of the future, Gaston Glock built his company and took it to the top of the world with the internationally renowned Glock Perfection. He was responsible for the strategic direction of the GLOCK Group and its employees until the end”, the company further highlighted.
Founded in 1963, the company initially produced consumer goods in plastic and wood, and began manufacturing knives and military equipment in the early 1970s.
A big leap came in 1980 when Glock won an Austrian military competition to equip itself with a new service pistol.
Glock, who had no experience with firearms, created a lighter gun because it used plastic parts in a new way, was easier to disassemble, more compact, had more bullets per magazine and it would never jam.
The company has factories in several countries, including the United States, one of the world's largest and most profitable arms markets.
Glock, who has always stayed out of public life, has two sons and a daughter, using an aggressive strategy of reporting against social media outlets that report negatively on his company.
In 2011, Glock divorced Helga, to whom he had been married for 49 years, and married Kathryn Sykoff, 52 years his junior.
The ex-wife's fight for part of the family attracted media attention.
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