Thursday, December 22, 2022
When I first met John we instantly connected and found we had a common love for cars, intellectual curiosity, and a similar outlook on life. I remember our first conversation. When I mentioned that I had been to Deer Park avenue many times and was lucky enough not to have attracted any unwanted attention, he summed up the situation in one sentence: 'you used tact.'
I hung out with John almost daily for years, and I was always impressed with his ferocious intellect and hunger for knowledge. When we watched 'The Lion King' in the theater for the first time, only John knew that Timon and Pumbaa were meerkats. I remember thinking, how does he know that? He also shared a heated discussion he had with an elementary school teacher when he challenged Darwin's theory of evolution by making ape noises to mock the teacher, an early sign of his strong propensity to think for himself and challenge dogmatic thinking.
I also remember being in a bar with John in Babylon, when a much larger guy bumped into him and tried to brush him aside, and John pushed back, hard. I believe he was escorted from the bar. I gained respect for him and always respected him as someone who was intellectually principled and fought for what he believed in.
In the realm of cars, I remember John's stories of his legendary '85 Mustang, and what an aspiration it was to strive for that level of performance. I was amazed at his '89 Mustang, how well it ran with only simple modifications, how he got the most out it, and how well he drove it. After years of working on my car, when he finally said 'this is faster than my '85 Mustang', it was the highest compliment I could receive.
I remember my brother coming back from a ride with John. saying 'a guy in a Mustang coupe wanted to race John, so John raced him and beat him. He wouldn't leave John alone, he wanted to race him again, so John let him win.' This says everything about him. He knew what he had and he had nothing to prove.
The same story would repeat 'this guy at work (Macy's at the time) has a new Corvette, and he keeps saying how much faster his car his, how he could beat me so easily, so I raced him and won, boy was he upset!'
I also remember John looking at a computer for the first time, saying 'I know absolutely nothing about this' and then tenaciously working at it for years until he reached the upper echelons of the Information Technology world. I was amazed at his perseverance and dedication and desire to learn.
I'm glad to have known John as long as I did, he always challenged me to think differently, or to set a higher bar for myself. Coming from a rough background as he did, he was always an inspiration to me. 'If John can do it, you can do it.'
John you will be missed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTGDsY72cyA John is in this video at 3:20 and 6:30
