Dick and Hugh,
I vacation a week in Monterey nearly every spring. A couple of years ago
I met up with John and we took a drive from Monterey out to Lowell Howe's
place. Afterwards, on our return to Monterey, John gave me a tour of his
airplane hanger were he kept the '62 hardtop (a fabulous original car).
He obviously had two passions in life: his Imperials and politics. He
was very hard core in his political views and talked a lot about Ayn
Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" -- so much so that I bought the book figuing I
really missed out by not reading it years ago! Thumbing through it I
noticed a line "...who is John Galt?" How interesting I thought at the
time. What a shock to hear that he took his life and his wife's life
too.
John B.
On Tue, 17 Dec 2002 21:12:36 -0800 "Dick Benjamin" <DickB@xxxxxxxxx>
writes:
> I met him at the Solvang meet in 2001 - I remember the incident of
> the
> damage to his seat. He was truly outraged, although I was not able
> to
> detect the damage, and I don't know how it happened.
>
> Regarding his use of the John Gault name, I believe this is from a
> character
> in a book by Ayn Rand - "Atlas Shrugged". It should be assigned
> reading
> for anyone who is interested in the history American political
> thought.
> (Which, by the way, does not include me, so save your flames.)
>
> Dick Benjamin
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Hugh & Therese" <hugtrees@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <mailing-list@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 17, 2002 5:47 PM
> Subject: IML: Sad News About IML Member Ed Messick / John Gault
>
>
> > Hi, if you managed to scroll all the way to the end of the
> original
> message
> > regarding Ed Messick, you will have seen that he seems to have
> killed his
> > wife and then himself. A tragic end for anyone. I had some
> brief
> dealings
> > with Ed, whom I knew as John Gault at the time. I believe John
> Gault is
> the
> > name of a character in a book, but I don't know which one.
> >
> > John maintained two houses, one of which was in San Antonio. He
> initially
> > said he and I would have to meet up at some point but we never
> did. I
> > believe he was a very wealthy man. He loved 1962 Imperials in
> particular
> > and had a fabulous convertible. What I heard was that the
> restoration
> cost
> > some $50,000.
> >
> > He took it to a California meet a few years ago and it suffered
> some seat
> > damage at some point, about which he was, naturally, extremely
> annoyed.
> >
> > Ed was a man who took his politics extremely seriously. I don't
> really
> take
> > anything seriously, certainly nothing to the extent that he did,
> and so a
> > meeting never took place between us, just a few less than pleasant
> e-mails
> > from him before they petered out.
> >
> > Nevertheless, the world of Imperials has lost a true enthusiast,
> someone
> who
> > really wanted to see Imperials placed among the very high end of
> the old
> car
> > hobby spectrum. He briefly was charge of the 1962 page, if I
> recall
> > correctly. We won't see his like again and as someone who likes
> to
> > celebrate all Imperials and most Imperialists, we are therefore
> diminished
> > by his departure, not matter what our individual opinions of him
> may have
> > been.
> >
> > Hugh Hemphill
>
>
>
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