You know the feeling when someone punches you in the stomach and you lose air, you lose your breath. That's what just happened when I googled "Jerry Flint".
I'd sent him an email a few days ago with my review of the Honda CRZ.
I thought he'd get a kick out of it. Maybe he'd driven the car, and we'd discuss its design and engineering and how it was a magnet for men, (as one of my readers noted), and was it for women, too?
But Jerry didn't email me back.
I was traveling. I just got back late last night. So just now, before calling it a night, I googled "Jerry Flint" to see what he was up to and learned he passed away when I was busy doing what?
Getting ready to write a car review.
Jerry was my first boss outside of a restaurant. He introduced me to journalism and cars.
Journalism would become my life.
Journalism was Jerry's life. He loved cars. That was his beat. He was the most influential automotive reporter of our times. In 2003, The Journal of Financial Reporting named Jerry Flint one of the 100 most prominent business reporters of the 20th century. He also served as President of the International Motor Press Association.
Before working at Forbes Magazine, I was a waitress at a French restaurant in college. A cocktail waitress at El Torito after college in Washington, DC (Georgetown), not far from the National Press Building and my dream of being a paid writer... a dream about to come true.
I worked tables at night, and during the day I hung out at the National Press Building, telling everyone who'd listen,
"I want to be a reporter."
I dropped my resume at every national magazine and newspaper's Washington, DC bureau.
One early evening, sitting on the musty carpet of my furniture-less bedroom, (I had no money) I got a call from Jerry Flint saying he wanted diversity in the office, and being that I was from California, I'd work. Did I want to start the next day?
Jerry taught me how to write punchy headlines, and how to interview executives, and how to rewrite information from press releases, and ask pertinent questions.
Fact-check. Fact-check. Where to fact-check.
This was before the internet. Fact-checking was a big part of being a reporter, and traveling to libraries, and to think tanks, and to media briefings. I wrote pieces for the Trends column. I learned to use a fax machine. I went with Jerry to the National Press Club. He was about cars. Detroit. So I wrote pieces about cars too. Not a lot. But a few pieces enough to get me interested. Whet my whistle. Back then I didn't have much interest in cars because I didn't own one. I took a bus. I worked at Forbes only as long as Jerry stayed in the D.C. bureau... before he took off for London.
We always stayed in touch. And when I was in New York, we'd visit.
It was Jerry who told me about his car reviews... about how he took cars for long weekends, which gave me the idea to do the same for Chasing Clean Air. Clean cars. Long weekends in clean cars. Without Jerry, I'd never have written car reviews and had the pleasure to experience new engineering.
Whenever I write a car review, I think of Jerry and I wonder what he'd say about the car.
We stayed in touch for years. Decades. He wrote me a reference letter when I moved west. He laughed with me. Encouraged me.
On August 29th, a few days ago, I sent Jerry our last email, an email he never read. It started,
Hi Jerry, I hope you're doing well. Would you like to read my Honda CR-Z review? I just published it on my blog...
Jerry had a sharp sense of humor. He was colorful. He wore hats. He smoked cigars. He was strong with his words, opinions, and kindness.
Jerry, you will be missed!
While I've scanned this photo of you from the Forbes Washington DC Bureau when you were bureau chief in 1983 or 1984 (I didn't mark photo) the vision I have of you wherever you are is this...
You're driving in a red sports car that has real power and pazzazz. And you're zooming along a long windy road on a bright sunny day, passing green pastures, and trees, and flowers, and you go and you go and you go and you go.
Happy-go-lucky, you go...
Here is a link to Jerry's final article.
And you can read what Jerry's Forbes colleagues Steve Forbes and William Baldwin had to say upon his passing.
