Kenneth P. Kirchman was known as the quintessential "Florida Cracker." He graduated from Stetson University in central Florida with a BS in mathmatics and then earned a business degree from Harvard. After graduation in 1968, he started "Florida Software" in Altamonte Springs on a shoestring and subsequently built it into the world's premier banking software company which was re-named Kirchman Corporation. He had money and wasn't afraid to spend it: He hired only the best. He bought the 10,000 acre "Lake X" (AKA Lake Conlon) from Mercury Marine for use as an offsite recreational area for his employees Lake X was about 30 miles outside of Orlando and the secret testing grounds for Mercury Marine's latest technology for 47 years. He had his own private jet and drove a Rolls Royce. He was an avid outdoorsman and participated regularly in international recreational shooting sports in Argentina, Denmark, England, Ireland, Scotland and Spain.
Deanna Pitman was ambitious, pretty, talented and the daughter of one of Ken's best friends. After she won the title of Miss Apopka in 1979, Ken and his friend decided to put Ken's son and Deanna together on a date to see if there was any chemistry. There wasn't, but a May-December romance started up between Deanna and Ken who had been previously divorced. Deanna took the Miss Florida title in 1982, but a serious bid to secure a Miss America title that year was dashed when she flirted with a DUI charge that made the papers that year. At the time, Ken was 47 and Deanna 22. Ken and Deanna were subsequently married for 25 years. Ken passed in 2007 at the age of 72.
After buying Lake X, Ken developed a yen for Mercury boats and engines. At the time of his passing, he had a large collection which was subsequently auctioned off. A local Florida marine salvage company bought the bulk of it. Last year that company put the following knife up on e-bay which I bought. I knew it had a Bowles scrim, but I didn't know it was name etched to Miss Florida 1982 until I had it in hand.
The knife is very similar to the first 10 Model 8's that Rick scrimmed for the shop in 1981. (Earlier last year I picked one of these up - here's a link to it on the Model 8 thread
http://www.knifetalkforums.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=31377&page=16. These were unique in that they had a blade length of 4 1/2". An additional 1/2" doesn't sound like much, but it literally transforms a Model 8 into a Model 23 or large Stanaback Special (Blade thickness aside). The only difference in this case is that the Miss Florida knife has red and white spacers vs. black and white on the first 10, and the first 10 scrim serial numbers were the 40's while the Miss Florida knife is serial numbered 076, which puts it late '81 or early '82.
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