entrepreneur who pulled himself by his own bootstraps, took reasonable
risks and worked hard all his life.
If the soul of a person who has given it meaning is granted the chance
to hang around and watch over this world for a while, I hope one option
may be the one offered by this beautiful Hopi prayer: When you awaken
in the morning hush, I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled
flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry.
I am not there. I did not die.
As Sean Connery said in the movie The League of Extraordinary
Gentlemen, “Old tigers, sensing theend, areattheir mostfierce. And they go
down fighting.” That goes for my father and the son who once upon a time
was able to survive in his shadow long enough to find the light.
EPILOGUE
They say that no one ever really finishes a book, that a book is not
finished, it’s abandoned. Thomas Wolfe wrote, “The reason a writer writes
a book is to forget a book and the reason a reader reads a book is to
remember it.” I wrote this book to remember it.
My father will not be forgotten. Not by me. The chapter of his life is
finished, but the events in my life are ongoing. There is more to tell. As
another of my fortune cookies read in 2006, “Life to you is a dashing and
bold adventure,” as it was for my father before me.
I have now told about the role my father played in my life and in the
life of others, and the role I played in his. To paraphrase the words of
Georgia O’Keefe in the first chapter of this book, I hope that what he did
with where he has been has been of some interest.
As the years roll by and memories return, times grows short. You know
how short when your friends start leaving you behind. I didn’t write the
eulogy for my father, but I did for the first person I met when I transferred
to UNC-Chapel Hill. Eulogy for a Friend is Appendix H if you want to
read it.
I do know if my father were running his business today, he would not
be a happy camper. The newspaper and broadcasting station categories
that were the basis of his media empire are hurting big time because of the
shrinking advertising budgets and business closings caused by the
economy and competition from the internet. It is ironic that the smallest
part of his former empire is maintaining a consistent level of performance.
Outdoor advertising is a powerful ad format which tends to hold up better
during recessions because of its low cost and demographic reach. Outdoor
