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Gordon was a lawyer, mediator, teacher, lecturer, writer, and poker player – but to his family and friends, he will be remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, good friend, and raconteur. He passed away peacefully on October 30, 2024 of natural causes. Gordon was an immigrant.
In 1952, his parents sold their fish and chips restaurant in Toronto, Canada, and migrated to the U.S., settling in St.
Petersburg, Florida. A lifelong sports fan, at age 6 he was delighted to learn there were sports other than hockey. He would eventually go on to play fantasy (rotisserie) baseball and football for decades.
Gordon made friends easily and was a very good student. As early as elementary school, he began developing lifelong friendships. Two guys in particular, Bill Witt and Bruce Laval, helped “Americanize” him.
They remained friends over the decades. In high school, he was Student Body President, a member of the National Honor Society, and co-captain of the conference-champion swim team He also had a few unusual early accomplishments. He began winning dance contests in both jitterbug and ballroom dancing in the 6th grade.
He won his way into a national miniature golf championship at age 16, and he competed in the National Clown Diving Championships at Cypress Gardens, Florida, at age 18. Gordon was named a Poynter Scholar by the prominent family that owned the then St. Petersburg Times (now the Tampa Bay Times).
The designation came with scholarship money and guaranteed paid internships at the newspaper every summer. Newsprint got into his blood, and he was an avid reader of newspapers for the rest of his life. Gordon graduated from the University of Virginia in 1968.
His degree says he majored in political science, but he always joked that he really majored in weekends and poker. He was president of his fraternity, and once again he made lifelong friendships that greatly enriched his life. He regularly returned to Charlottesville for reunions that became more precious as the years passed.
In early 1969, he met a gal named Joyce. She moved to California, and Gordon followed her a few months later. On July 4th, 1970, Gordon married Joyce Klassen on the banks of Jewel Lake in Tilden Park, Berkeley.
She made all the clothes they wore. Gordon played the guitar and sang. It was a lifelong union.
Gordon received a Master’s Degree in Political Theory from San Jose State University in 1972. Over the next few years, he taught American Government at Ohlone College, wrote one of the many unpublished Great American Novels, and played a lot of poker. He and Joyce moved to Felton and welcomed their son Dylan into their lives in 1974.
Gordon decided in 1977 that he needed to get a real job. He took the Law School Admission Test. His unusually high score led to an invitation to join Mensa, an honor which he declined.
He attended Santa Clara University Law School, including a summer at the University of Oxford, and received his J.D. in 1981.
He was chosen from dozens of applicants to be the Research Attorney for the Santa Cruz County Superior Court judges. It was a great gig for a new lawyer, getting to know the judges and seeing the workings of the judicial system from behind the scenes. He also got to see the best and worst of legal writing as it passed across his desk.
In late 1982, he joined the firm that would become Page, Salisbury and Dudley, practicing law in downtown Santa Cruz for over 30 years. Early in his career, he handled many cases involving minors, several of which were very high-profile, including one in which he got the NCAA to make an unprecedented decision to restore the amateur status to a young female tennis player who had played as a professional for almost a year. He also represented a young man who, at the time, was the youngest college graduate in the United States and was the subject of two episodes on 60 Minutes.
He was a member of the board of directors of the Santa Cruz County Child Abuse Prevention Council for five years. He was also among the first attorneys in California to be appointed to represent a fetus. Gordon’s practice evolved into civil litigation, with the emphasis on employment disputes and personal injury cases.
For a couple of years, he taught civil litigation to students in the Paralegal Program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He represented dozens of women who were the victims of sexual harassment or gender discrimination in the workplace. He lectured several times on these topics at Stanford Law School.
He also represented or advised many employers, including Santa Cruz nonprofits like KUSP, the Volunteer Center, the Land Trust, Salud Para La Gente, and Second Harvest Food Bank, among others. For more than 20 years, he served on the board of directors of the Santa Cruz County Trial Lawyers’ Association. During that time, he organized and moderated dozens of Continuing Legal Education programs for local attorneys.
He was a three-time president of the organization and received its Distinguished Service Award in 2013. Upon retirement from active practice, he continued to offer free consultations to those in need of prompt advice and referrals. Over the years, Gordon and Joyce traveled extensively, including multiple trips to Europe.
But by far their favorite excursions were cross-country road trips in the US, and they did dozens beginning in 1971. They had family in the Midwest and friends all along the Eastern Seaboard, especially in Florida and New Orleans. Those trips kept family relationships and friendships vibrant.
Gordon bought and read every newspaper he could find along the way. Gordon also traveled six times with a buddy to Amsterdam in the 2000s to play in what was then the biggest poker tournament in Europe. Gordon’s poker “career” continued into his 70s.
He began playing exclusively in tournaments in the mid 1990s, and he won many, many events, including a national championship in Las Vegas in 2015 at age 69. (You can easily view his brief post-victory interview by searching Gordon Salisbury on YouTube.) Gordon lived a full and rich life, largely due to his good fortune in having Joyce as his partner and their wonderful son Dylan and his family.
Right until the end, his favorite slogan was always: “Quit while you’re ahead.” He is survived by Joyce, his beloved wife of 54 years, his son Dylan and daughter-in-law Grace, granddaughters Ashley and Chloe, grandsons Jessiah and Joshua, his brother John and sister-in-law Ani, and numerous cousins, in-laws, nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests that you consider a modest donation to the Foundation Fighting Blindness: www.
fightingblindness.org. A celebration of Gordon’s life will be announced at a later date.
To be notified of the time and location, contact Dylan at [email protected] Honor with Flowers In memory of Gordon J Plant a Living Memorial In memory of Gordon J.
