Sunday, January 11, 1998

Impact of Jack Grimm's loss felt far beyond Abilene

By Joel Guedry

The world has lost Jack Grimm -- an oilman, wildcatter, treasure hunter, risk-taker and entrepreneur.

Abilene has lost Jack Grimm -- a cornerstone of its history who dared to achieve great things while calling Abilene his home.

Texas has lost Jack Grimm -- part of its past, one of those pioneers in deed and spirit who played in that arena of great men (where only a few dare to tread) on such deals as drilling wildcat oil or gas wells to discover new fields, searching for Noah's Ark or Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster, promoting the locating and salvage of the Titanic or searching for that treasure trove from sunken shipwrecks and broken dreams of the past.

I knew Jack Grimm as a promoter, a visionary, a dreamer and a doer of great deeds whose enthusiasm was fueled by the energy of a new deal, which was generally much larger than his insatiable entrepreneurial appetite.

For example, almost seven years ago I was playing cards with him in the famous World Series of Poker at the Las Vegas Binion's Horseshoe, and I exposed him to a very costly gas venture on the Gulf Coast of Texas. Several days later Jack called me in Houston and said, "Come to Dallas. Bunker and I would like to talk to you about that gas deal." Jack put the deal together and was credited with a major field discovery.

Jack was a people person. He loved his friends, such as his beloved Bunker Hunt, John Lee, Larry Turner, Jack Green and the many others who thrived on his great stories. His personality was not "just one of the boys," but infectious, almost demanding a special presence.

Jack Grimm loved the art of the deal, the negotiating process, the camaraderie of the players and the limelight of success and, yes, even failure.

Once he gleefully shared with me a newspaper article about him that was as critical and negative as it was favorable and positive. Jack, however, took great pride in this exposure and news coverage. I surmised that Jack felt any news or notoriety was better than no news at all.

I talked to Jack several times in his last weeks. He was in pain, yet he talked positively about the Oklahoma oil deal (when we presented it recently, Jack said, "It's the biggest deal of my life").

He also talked about his cancer. Ironically, we had participated passively in combating this dreadful disease with the product Ondrox -- an antioxidant vitamin invented by M.D. Anderson Cancer Research Center in Smithville.

Jack indicated that if this horse didn't throw him (he said to Dr. Tom Slaga, the Ondrox inventor, "If you give me three more years, I'll make you a millionaire"), he might be working on the North Dakota oil play or going to the Las Vegas Rio Poker Tournament this month.

After the last conversation, I knew Jack could not ride this horse or win this battle. The night before Jack's death, my wife, Janice, and I went to see the great movie "Titanic." It had a special meaning to me in that I had a small involvement with Jack on his Titanic project. Afterward, my eyes were teared, and my heart swelled with sadness. I knew my old friend was gone.

Men like Jack Grimm should not be judged on how they played a single poker hand dealt to them in the game of life, but be judged only in how they played the entire game.

Lastly, wherever Jack's journeys, deals and adventures carried him, he always went back to Abilene, his pals, friends and his beloved Buffalo Gap. He once told me as he looked to the northwest that he envisioned the buffalo running over the gap.

At this time it is fitting to quote that famous, recently deceased West Texas cowboy poet Buck Ramsey, who wrote the poem "Anthem":

And in the morning I was riding

Out through the breaks of that long plain

And leather creaking in the quieting

Would sound with trot and trot again.

I lived in time with horse hoof falling;

I listened well and heard the calling.

The earth, my mother, bade to me,

Though I would still ride wild and free.

And as I flew out on the morning,

Before the bird, before the dawn,

I was the poem, I was the song.

My heart would beat the world a warning.

Those horsemen now rode all with me.

And we were good, and we were free.

Jack lived the poem, he was the song. We will all miss Jack Grimm, but hopefully his spirit will be with us until we can no longer ride that horse.

Joel Guedry is a Houston attorney and deal-maker.