Gordon D. Shirreffs

Gordon Donald Shirreffs (January 15, 1914 – February 9, 1996) was an American author, known mostly for writing Western and juvenile (young adult) novels. He also wrote a teleplay. Two of his novels, Judas Gun and Rio Bravo (1956), were made into the films A Long Ride from Hell (1968) and Oregon Passage (1957) respectively. One of his short stories, "Silent Reckoning" (1954), became the film The Lonesome Trail (1955).

Biography Gordon Shirreffs was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1914, soon after his mother emigrated from Scotland. When his National Guard unit was activated in 1940 Shirreffs served in World War II where he was stationed in Alaska's Aleutian Islands as part of the Pacific Theater. Following the war he attended Northwestern University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Shirreffs married Alice Johanna Gutwein on February 7, 1941, in El Paso, TX. They had two children, a daughter Carole (born 1943) and a son Brian (1946–2015), who died June 22, 2015, Long Beach, CA.

He lived in Granada Hills, San Fernando Valley, CA from 1952 until his death in 1996.

For a time in the 1950s, Shirreffs operated a hobby shop in Granada Hills. In keeping with his Scottish roots, he was a member of one or more bagpipe bands in Burbank and San Fernando, CA.