Name Dropping

9/14/24 ~ by Griz (aka Steve Stovner) ~
Over the years, I have encountered many rich & famous people. I’m not the type to fawn over them or seek an autograph. I respect and marvel at the talent and dedication it takes to be at the very top of a vocation (athlete, entertainer, diplomat, engineer, writer, etc.) but I absolutely do not worship or idolize them as so many others do. In fact, I’ve found some of them (beyond the narrow area of expertise) to be quite disappointing. Most of my encounters did not stand out Pro or Con as people, Lucille Ball, Burt Reynolds, Chris Evert, Paul Magriel, Scotty Nguyen, Erik Seidel, Doyle Brunson, Demetrious (Mighty Mouse) Johnson, Matt Damon, and many more. But a few left me with indelible memories.

mid 70s
Wee hours of the morning, I was at an LAX gate waiting to board a red eye. The LA lakers basketball team were at the adjoining gate waiting for their flight. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (who had recently changed his name from Lew Alcindor) was pacing the isle outside the waiting area. A man ran up to him and starting talking a mile a minute, obviously super excited to meet him, pushing pen and ? at him for autograph. It was also obvious that Kareem wanted nothing to do with the man and tried to turn away, but the man persisted. Kareem reluctantly signed the ? , the man gushed “thank you so much”, slugged him in the stomach and walked away. He did not look back to see Kareem doubled over trying to catch his breath. I assume the man was a fan and expected a great athlete like Kareem to easily take the punch (intended as a guy to guy salute) but he did not pull the punch and Kareem was already turning away from the rude encounter and did not see it coming. Several of his teammates rushed to his side and 2 started after the man, but Kareem stopped them saying “its part of the price” or something similar.

1975
I was boarding a Dalles airport flight home from a business trip. We were midway down the boarding ramp (which was moving very slow). In front of me was a young woman with large baby bag hanging from her shoulder and obviously carrying a baby. Out of the blue I was thrown against the sidewall by a 6’ 5" 300+ man, he proceeded forward and did the same to the women. Focused on protecting the baby, she lost her balance and fell with one leg under her at awkward angle. The man looked at her with a “Oh Oh” on his face, then looked back at the short man behind him with a questioning “what now” expression. The very short man (Henry Kissinger) barely glanced at the women before waving the man forward. Following Kissinger was a twin of the first brute. We helped the women to her feet. She said she was ok but I noticed a slight limp when the line started moving (much slower than before) 5 minutes later. When we reached first class seating, all movement stopped. Kissinger was in a window seat, empty seat beside him, empty row in front of him and empty row behind him. The brutes were standing in the aisle one row fore and aft of him and a stewardess was pouring him champagne. On her way back to the galley, in a rush to get whatever else he had requested, she was respectful of the young mother but very rough getting past me and the others behind me. The women with baby glared at Kissinger which prompted the brutes to step aside and motion her past. But I and the others had to squeeze by them to get to our seats. When everyone was finally seated and the door closed, the captain made 2 announcements. We would be departing 15 minutes late due to "maintenance issues" and that we had an honored guest aboard, the great Henry Kissinger, United States Secretary of State. There were lots of Oohh's & Aahh's and polite applause from the passengers. As the applause died out, a loud and clear female voice said “arrogant bastard”, which brought loud and vigorous applause from myself and several others.

12/6/18
I was at Stanwood Les Schwab Tire to get a flat fixed. While standing at the observation window watching the kids "work". A distinguished looking guy with white hair and beard approached and also started watching. I told him how dismayed I was about the lack of work ethic and pride in doing a good job that pervades today’s young people. He agreed. I told him about my standing at a similar window when I was 14 watching a coordinated team of 4 high school kids dressed in all white, remove 4 wheels, remove old tires, install new tires & inner tubes, balance them and remount the wheels on the car in under 5 minutes. We talked about that and other things as we watched the totally uncoordinated, inefficient, stand-around, inaction of the 5 20+ year olds. I introduced myself as Steve, he as Ken. At which point I had a strong feeling we had met before but I could not place him. Nice guy, one of few people I encounter that I would readily spend more time with. I was half way home when it hit me – Kenny Rogers. A quick google search confirmed he lives nearby on Camano Island.

April 1964
I was an Aviation Electronics Repair Instructor at Fort Gordon Georgia, CBS hired me and some others with army supplied PRC-10 radios to sit at the Masters Golf Tournament greens and radio individual scores in to the main score board. Great gig. I sat inside the tape on the edge of the 10th green. As each player finished the hole, they would tell me what they shot on the hole and I would radio it in. Most players would stop short of the tape (next to me) to fill out their card before proceeding to the 11th Tee. If they did not volunteer their score, I would ask and almost always be told (Name and Score). A few were not cooperative. Some gave only score expecting me to know who they were, so I had to ask, which made a few testy, a couple refused to acknowledge my question and I had to ask someone else who they were. One barked at me when I asked name and score then walked off in a huff. From behind me a gentle voice said “his name is XXX, he shot a double bogey 6”. Arnold Palmer then proceeded to give me his name, score and ask if I needed anything else. The next day when he gave me his score, he asked if everyone was cooperating. A nice guy.

1985
Trish and I were staying at the Sheraton in Brussels Belgium. I was there for the annual ARINC conference. My senior manager called a strategy meeting in his suite at a high-class hotel nearby. Entering the lobby, I saw Billie Jean King surrounded by several people. I had watched her win many major tournaments on TV and had the highest regard for her talents. This day however I was shocked by 2 things: (1) She was tiny - little more than 5 foot tall and (2) She was a being a real bitch. The hotel manager (I assume) was trying to appease her, but she was calling him names, insulting him and not letting him speak. When her companion tried to calm her down, she whirled and attacked her. When the bellboys started to pick up her luggage. King lashed out at them. “I did not tell you to do that”, etc. On my way to the elevator, I overheard a man tell another “That d*** is a disaster, its always something with her”.

Around 1970
I was a Boeing Electronics Technician. I was chosen to be “ local tech support” for an Inflight Entertainment system company (movies) which was located in New York. The system was going to be an option the airlines could select for installation by Boeing prior to delivery of their airplane. My job was to install it in the 747 sales mockup and maintain it (keep it working). To support my task I flew back to the factory (near LaGuardia Airport) for 2 days instruction on the system. The third day I was invited to have lunch with the company CEO in the city. I spent most of the morning waiting for the driver to take me to the downtown New York cooperate headquarters. When I got concerned about getting there on time, I was told that the driver was a teamster and if I ever wanted to get there, I needed to be absolutely polite and bow to his every wish (no matter what he did). The trip into town was eye opening. Massive traffic jams with honking horns and yelling at several intersections. Caused by people jumping the gun before the light turned green and turning cars blocking traffic by trailing thru red lights. I met the senior staff and the CEO who introduced me to Richard Ferris, United Airlines Director of Customer accommodations, who was going to have lunch with us (Richard told me to call him Dick). The 3 of us (2 senior executives and a young electronics tech) went to a fancy restaurant across the street from the Playboy club. Dick ordered calf's liver, CEO said “I also will have the calf’s liver”. I hated liver, my mom’s fried liver was tough and tasted horrible, and since 12 or 13, I would not touch it. But I saw nothing else on the menu that I recognized and I wanted to fit in, so I said “me 3”. Dick picked up on my hesitation and said “You’ll like it”. He was right, smothered in onions and lots of other unknown stuff, it was great. They talked about numerous things (little about UA purchase of inflight movie systems) and the CEO told Dick that I was their Boeing based tech support. After lunch I was given a phone # to call when I was ready to go back to my motel and had the afternoon off to explore New York city on my own. The afternoon was quite an adventure, ending in a late-night helicopter flight from top of Pam Am building to LaGuardia Airport, then taxi to motel. (Someday I may tell the story of that afternoon).

15+? years later, I was lead EFIS Systems Engineer and had a beard. I don’t remember why we were there, but my supervisor, his boss and myself were in the one of the mockups, when 3 stately men entered. My supervisor said “that’s the UAL President and the President of Boeing”. We moved aside and made ourselves small, so as not to interfere with them. As they approached, the UAL President stepped forward, held out his hand and said “Steve Stovner, how have you been?”. I was just as shocked as my managers were. But again, the man picked up on my hesitation and continued, “Richard Ferris, it’s been a long time, but I still remember that delicious calf’s liver, don’t you?” with a slight delay, I responded, “Dick, that was the first time in my life that I enjoyed eating liver, how could I forget?”. He said “Don’t be a stranger” or something to that effect and resumed his conversation with the Boeing brass as they walked away. My managers were all a buzz with questions, but the only thing I told them was; “Dick and I had lunch together in New York city many years ago”.

That encounter impressed the hell out of me. How could he recognize me, remember my name and why would he take the time to interact? But he was a “people person” and that’s what they do. I, on the other hand, am not a people person. If it’s of interest to me, I remember lots of detail about what they said or did, but not names, faces, dates and other stuff that does not tickle my mind. Which is a major reason why I got poor grades in so many of my school classes. For example: when told about the invention of the cotton gin to clean cotton, I asked what exactly did it do (remove seeds was the only answer), I asked how it worked, but teacher did not know (or would not tell) and shut down further discussion. I failed the test because I did not remember Eli Whitney or the date of his patent (I also missed most of the other names, dates and places that comprised 80% of the test). I guess names and dates are super important to others, but not to me. If they would have told me how it worked, then asked that on the test, I would have definitely remembered and probably expounded on potential design improvements.