Encounters With Significant People

SO NICE TO MEET YOU
by Torrey H. Brinkley

Most of us have had occasion to meet or greet someone famous in our lives. Take this brief little test to see if you recognize any of these people who have appeared in the national spotlight in the last quarter century.

1) Steve Forbes
2) Abigail Van Buren
3) Tom Tancredo
4) Ricardo Montalban
5) Jeb McGruder
6) James Irwin
7) Joseph Zappala
8) John Perkins
9) Larry Hatteberg
10) James Spainhower
11) Leith Anderson
12) Alf Francis

Do you recall any of these names? Do you know what they have done in life? This writer has met each of the above folk. Take a look below.



1) Steve Forbes is the editor & publisher of Forbes magazine, one of our country's thinking economists, and a former candidate for President of the USA back in 1996. My stock broker invited me to go hear Forbes speak back in 1996 with a group of investors. I got to personally chat with him before the talk and was impressed by his humility and clear vision of economic issues.

2) Abigail Van Buren was the nationally syndicated advice columnist named Dear Abby, who lived in Chicago, IL. When I was on the Steinmetz newspaper, I won some awards for Sports Editor,maybe in 1961, and got to meet Dear Abby at an awards ceremony in downtown Chicago.

3) Tom Tancredo was our senator from Colorado, and another Republican candidate for President in 2008.
It was a pleasure to meet him at a place of business a month ago that I frequent every week. He said he was in need of work ( he did not get the President's White House job), so I gave him some advice.

4) Ricardo Montalban was a TV actor who starred on Fantasy Island show during the 1970s and who did many TV commercials for Chrysler.
When my wife & I took our 3 young boys on the TWA flight from New York to Madrid in 1978, to go start our missionary service, we met Mr. Montalban on our flight. He was a most gracious man & still handome 30 yrs. ago. He just past away recently.

5) Jeb McGruder was part of President Richard Nixon's White House staff, and was implicated in the infamous Watergate scandal. He served some prison time, found Christ, became a minister, and has written of his experiences.
I helped do an interview of him after Watergate with my TV reporter friend in the ABC-TV studio in Wichita, KS. It was shown on TV that night (after editing).

6) James Irwin was one of our first astronauts to go to the Moon. He shared his faith in Christ with audiences around the world along with his lunar escapades. His passion during the 1980s was to discover Noah's Ark, which he claimed to have done in Turkey's Mt. Ararat.
Irwin came to one of the evangelical churches in Madrid, Spain back in 1979, sharing his testimony, and we got to meet him there.

7) Joseph Zappala was a Florida businessman whom Ronald Reagan appointed to be Ambassador to Spain 1989-92. He also worked to help youth with addictions to drugs & alcohol.
Zappala was the invited speaker at the graduation ceremony for the American School in Madrid, where our sons attended. I was the invited pastor to sit on the same platform with him for 3 hours, and shared notes about the various families & programs of the school.

8) John Perkins was a black father growing up in poverty in Miss., who boldly left home for California. He became a successful entrepreneur and Christian speaker & author. President Reagan appointed him to a post of Family Resources Advisor.
I attended a workshop for mission strategists in Atlantic City, NJ in 1986 during the Chernobyl disaster (in Russia), and Perkins was one of our speakers during the week.

9) Larry Hatteberg has been an 40-yr. ABC-TV newsman based in Wichita, KS since his college days. He was voted best Newsfilm Photographer in the USA 2 years in a row, named President of the National Press Photographers' Association, and a regular speaker at their national convention, and has authored a few books.
Larry was one of my parishoners at our Wichita, KS church. We worked together for about 3 years doing a film on loneliness, which premiered on ABC-TV, and then was shown in churches across the USA and Canada. I went on many of his TV assignments, had many breakfasts & lunches together over the years. We still keep in touch, especially after he broke the story on Wichita's "BTK Killer" a few years ago.

10) James Spainhower was a two term congressman from Missouri, and was the Treasurer of the State in the 1970s. He also is an ordained minister.
When my young choir director in our Wichita church wanted to run for political office, I went with him for a full day to interview Spainhower, the Treasurer of Missouri, as well as a Missouri state senator, who was also a Christian. That was a fine, fun day spent seeing our American political process in action.

11) Leith Anderson has served as pastor of churches in Longmont, CO and Eden Prairie, MN, has authored several books, and was recently named President of the National Association of Evangelicals. For a brief time he was interim President of the Denver Seminary.
My first assignment after seminary was working as the associate pastor with Anderson. We served together for 3 years at a Conservative Baptist Church, and I oversaw the youth, Christian Education, missions and music programs of the church. We met recently for our former church's 50th anniversary, and reflected on old times.

12) Alf Francis was the race car mechanic for Britain's most storied race car driver, Stirling Moss (1950s). He also designed what became known as the Ford GT-40, America's first modern era winner of the 24 Hours of LeMans Race (1966-69). He later opened an exotic car dealership in Wichita, KS.
Again, when I found Francis and his showroom & shop full of exotic European cars in downtown Wichita, I tried to get my friend at ABC-TV to come do a TV story on this important older gentleman. The best we could do was have a film crew come & shoot Larry Hatteberg filming me, with my car hobby decorating Francis' sports car facility. Larry was getting a very prestigious national award at the time.

What is probably true for you, as it was for me, is that just a few of these people had a real deep lasting impression on my life's character. Have you thought about those people who impacted you deeply, including the how and why?