What a Life!

Red McCombs, 95, was a billionaire entrepreneur. He died Sunday February 19, 2023. Quotable Quotes:

"I was an entrepreneur before I knew what the word was and certainly before I could spell it," Mr. McCombs said in a 2006 radio interview. "New deals, new opportunities, new ventures are always a part of my life."

"Instead of wanting to win, we expected to win," he said. "There's a lifetime between wanting something and expecting something. When you expect something, it means you've prepared, done the work, and EXPECT TO WIN!!"

"I would never have thought I could ever have had a chance to do something like Clear Channel," he wrote. "That's why I don't really believe in long-term plans. There was no way I could have ever planned Clear Channel."

David Oreck, 99, was an entrepreneur and founder of the Oreck Vacuum Cleaner Company. He died February 15, 2023.

Quotable Quotes: "You have but a fleeting moment to touch somebody on the eyeball and get their attention. Don't blow it."

Reverend George M. Docherty, 97, was the longtime pastor of New York Avenue Baptist Church in Washington D.C., and a popular pastor to many presidents. He died November 27, 2008.

Quotable Quotes:

"I came from Scotland, where we said, 'God save our gracious queen,' 'God save our gracious king.' Here was the Pledge of Allegiance, and God wasn't in it at all."

"There is something missing in the Pledge, and that which is missing are the characteristics and definitive factor in the American way of life,"

Tim McCarver, 81, was a Major League Baseball veteran and National Baseball Hall of Fame Announcer. He died Thursday February 16, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"Ballplayers, they're making more money than ever, but I don't think they're as happy. Not too many guys look like they're having a good time. It's a conundrum."

"When Steve [Carlton] and I die, we are going to be buried in the same cemetery, 60-feet 6-inches apart."

"If somebody told me back in 1980 that I would have a 32-year career, and that I'd be [elected into the Hall of Fame], I'd say no way. For three years, I couldn't even break into the Phillies broadcast booth. I was just hoping to make it, much less be mentioned as a Ford Frick winner. Believe me, when I started out, this award wasn't even close to being on the radar."

Shoichioro Toyoda, 97, was the second generation owner and president of the Toyota Motor Company. He died Tuesday February 14, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"We felt we suffered from large-corporation disease, … so we embarked on a cure. We have a saying: 'A large man has difficulty exercising his wits fully.'"

"We owe a great deal of thanks to America for our sense of the importance of quality."

Ted Lerner, 97, was a real estate developer and owner of the Washington National baseball club. He died Sunday February 12, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"True measure of excellence is not what we've achieved for ourselves – but what it enables us to do for others."

"Striving for excellence, building for future generations – that way it's not about the properties. It's about the communities. It's about the future."

"The highest honor is to have your family involved in the family business."

Saint Valentine was a Catholic priest who was beheaded for secretly conducting marriage ceremonies. He died February 14, 269 AD.

Quotable Quotes:

"Love is the master key that opens the gates of happiness." - Oliver Wendell Holmes.

"Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in a love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the mornings, what you will do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything." - Joseph Whelan, S.J.,

"I didn't marry you because you were perfect. I didn't even marry you because I loved you. I married you because you gave me a promise. That promise made up for your faults. And the promise I gave you made up for mine. Two imperfect people got married and it was the promise that made the marriage. And when our children were growing up, it wasn't a house that protected them; and it wasn't our love that protected them--it was that promise." – Thorton Wilder

John J. Boyer, 86, was a blind and deaf software developer whose multiple companies developed numerous products to assist people with various disabilities. He died January 17, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"To be respected in this society, you have to have a job, and that's as it should be. But I know what it's like to be labeled unemployable, and I really want to see other handicapped people gainfully employed."

"My working relationship with the Lord is that I do what is possible. And He will do the impossible."

Marianne Mantell, 93, was the co-founder of Caedmon Records. She died on January 22, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

On her first recording: "What we heard was like a thunderbolt, transforming with its electricity,"

"We were not just out to preserve celebrity voices (to the extent that a poet is a celebrity). Our purpose was literary: to capture on tape as nearly as possible what the poet heard in his head as he wrote."

Robert Orben, 95, was a comedy writer and White House speechwriter. He died February 2, 2023.

Quotable Quotes:

"The secret of writing comedy is to know where it's all going, then get ahead of it."

"If you can't get there first, better never than late."

"Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some smaller countries are neutral."

"Let us never forget that no man is perfect - until he writes his resume."