Have you ever met someone important?

If so, who, what were the circumstances and did it change you in any way?

I did. A 21 yr old kid at Oshkosh in the terminal building eating lunch waiting for my flight home. Sitting at the table by myself, weeklong airshow sunburn, Piper Tshirt, Cessna hat and a balsa wood RC glider model on the table. An elderly guy ( He was 56 at the time) stopped by asking about the model. He asked if he could join me for lunch. The nice guy asked all sorts of questions about my building and flying RC models, my love of airplanes, my family and other things. Really good listener. Someone interrupted us and asked him for his autograph. It was Bob Hoover. R. A. (Bob) Hoover.
I learned to be a good listener from that short lunch with who is arguably the best pilot to ever fly a plane. That encounter also encouraged me to become a pilot myself and mentor youth that wanted to become pilots.

 

Not in order:

- Pope John Paul II - I'm not/wasn't Catholic, but you could tell the guy loved helping people and he had an amazing memory. Met him while on deployment.
- Hootie and the Blowfish - regular dudes.
- Gary Sinise - nothing but respect for the guy. Have seen him a few times, along with his band.
- Master Chief Petty Officer Carl Brashear - if you've seen "Men of Honor" you know who this is. First African American master diver in the US Navy. The man was solid - you could tell by looking @ him he didn't let sh*t get in his way.
- Jakob Dylan - ran into him almost literally while on honeymoon. He was trying to 'slum it' and evidently I was one of the only ones who recognized who he was. LOL
- Jewel - about as normal as you can get. I flat out asked her "Would it be too much to ask for a hug?" She said "I love hugs!" and gave me a big one.
- George H. W. Bush - met him in 1998 in the U.A.E. while the USS Enterprise was in port. Was going to be a regular "how's it going" and move on until I told her the girl I was dating @ the time (daughter of a former congressman) said hi. He stopped the SS and said "Wait - such-and-such's daughter? Well how the heck are they?" We shot the breeze for the next minute or so while my friends were looking at me wondering how the HELL I managed to get 'personal' time with the former President. LOL
- George W. Bush - also pretty normal. Despite being President he loved nothing more than to goof around with people and the like.
- Donald Rumsfeld - didn't say much to him, but he went out of his way to shake our hands (we were escorting him and his contingent around during a visit to our base).
- Caroline's Spine (band) - notable because we were out @ sea and were told by the CO not to make too much noise. They basically said "F that" and we moshed. LOL
- Tom Clancy - the guy had a prodigious memory...but honestly, came across as a jerk to me.
- Phil Anselmo - cool as hell but you (along with the entire world) could tell he was on something. LOL
- Rage Against the Machine - loved their music but they came across as self-righteous jerks.
- Green Day - same as RATM.
- various Christian bands (D.C. Talk, Mortal, Audio Adrenaline, Jars of Clay, etc.)

Honorable Mention:

- Wife went to high school with Jason Mraz. (He's the dude that sings "I'm Yours.")

There's more that I've forgotten. Will come back and modify if I can remember.

 

I've met John Lynch, Joe Madden, and Chuck Yeager.

 

A pilot huh? You know anything about agriculture aviation? I may or may not have close family ties to one of the biggest ag airplane manufacturers.

Also growing up we had an old Cessna 206 I rode a many hours shot gun in. Fast travel across a big state.

One of the best stories I remember from my father was the day he was a 20 ish year old lost and happen to get a seat at a luncheon in Kansas for some reason. He said he sat down not really knowing anyone. A few minutes later a group of people sat down across from him. He looked up and was sitting directly across from Bill Synder, the current at the time Kansas State football coach and one of the more famous coaches now. He said in the next hour of conversation he learned more about how to make smart decisions and always make sure your personal choices are taking you down the right path, than he had learned his entire life. Bill had great words about how you alone have the greatest effect on your personal outcome.

 

I was shopping with friends and family for pottery and joking with the folks I had come with. I see ex-mayor; ex-police chief of San Diego and he's smiling over some of our banter.
He's not at all famous but he's a very recognizable and highly regarded fellow in San Diego. I just smiled back at him and continued on.
If I had ever met someone really important, I wouldn't know what to say or do !

 

Red Emerson, owns Sierra Pacific Industries. Great guy, my employer is friends with him and I have had breakfast with them on more than one occasion. He is one of the largest private land owners in the U.S.

 

I don't think so, but my dad was the original inventor of the round solar arrays you always see on spacecraft and in renderings. I wouldn't call that famous, but a guy that was the brains behind an idea that millions of people have seen and continues to pop up. I think that's pretty cool

EDIT: I realized the title was "important" not famous. I've met, worked with, and been taught by lots of people that were world experts in their fields or had unique claims to fame. Though I think my dad still takes the cake for most recognizable contribution of anyone I know.

 

Mississauga Mayor Hazel Macallion at my grand parents 75th wedding anniversary back in the early nineties . She was pretty down to earth .

 

Nothing too crazy as I'm pretty low key...Sarah Palin, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, The Hunger (90s band), State Rep Steve Toth, Navy SEALs Marcus & Morgan Luttrell (the latter won the Republican primary for TX Congress).

Oh yeah, Santa Claus. Many times. Dude happens to be wherever I go around Christmas time.

 

You know what they call a 206 on floats in Canada? Fastest boat on the lake.

 

Not necessarily “important,” per se, but I have met some celebrities and such. I met Halle Berry while she was filming a movie locally. This was when I worked as a police officer, post-military, and we were working a detail blocking off a section of town for the filming. She was super cool and easy going.

While in the Navy I also met a lot of names that are recognizable and some of them are no longer with us. Not going to name drop, but feel honored to have met them and able to contribute in a small way to their mission set.

I also used to do some flying myself. It really does make the world a small place. I was working on time building mostly flying all over NM, AZ, CA, NV and UT, and all sorts of other spots.

Some people I met/ saw during that time:

-Saw but didnt get to speak with Angelina Jolie at Santa Monica airport. I think this was probably around the time she had purchased an SR22 and was taking lessons.

-Saw Joe Montana come off of a Citation and go into the same FBO we were fueling at in El Paso.

-Met and spoke with Frank Borman (WWII pilot, Apollo 8 astronaut) at Las Cruces, NM airport. Got to visit with him and look over his aircraft collection including an awesome P-51 named after his wife. Really neat guy. Imagine getting rocketed to the moon and having to trust that the math would work to slingshot you back to earth… That’s balls

-Got to meet and take a picture with Ash Costello from the band New Years Day. I asked her where I should stand and she said how about here or there? I said how about you pick and I’ll just do what you like. She said I was a good boy and that she ought to keep me. (spoiler: she didnt keep me )

- I have also seen and met backstage Maria Brink and the entire band In This Moment. For such a fierce voice on stage she is really sweet and low-key behind the scenes.

-Phil Anselmo I have met as well but only once. I grew up a big Pantera fan but never was able to see them live unfortunately. Phil lives about 20 minutes from me and is known to eat at a certain local restaurant from time to time when he isn’t touring or overseas with Superjoint.

-Honorable mention 1: Saw and confirmed Jenna Jameson multiple times driving a yellow Lambo when I lived in Phoenix. Rumor was she lived in Scottsdale somewhere.


-Honorable mention 2: My best friend growing up and best man in my wedding almost ran over Ludacris in a Hooters parking lot. He had his posse with him and they were probably packing, but we obviously wanted to yell “Move Bitch, Get out the Way!” Missed opportunity….

 

I think you mean "Have you met somebody famous?" Because importance is pretty subjective and personal to every person. The most important people to me are my family and I see them all the time. I would sacrifice 1,000 Bob Hoovers or Brad Pitts or Shaquille O'Neals to save a 2nd cousin I don't even like. And I like Shaq. He seems like a great guy. But he isn't important to me at all.

Also, calling celebrities and such "important" really over-values them and devalues the rest of us. You are just as important as any celebrity. We are all human after all.

 

I live in LA and have net a few celebrities. I even went to a bachelor party at one of their homes. They are not important in the wildest exaggeration of the term.

 

I understand what you mean and agree mostly. All too often famous would be considered someone like Kim Kardashian who is famous for being....famous. Which BTW most of us here wouldn't swerve one foot to miss a mud puddle to prevent splashing her.

 

My wife Linda.

 

56 is elderly?!!! Wow!!!!

 

I was thinking that too!

I have no idea who half these people are!
Only famous people I have met are politicians. Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul, John Y Brown, and several governors, congressmen etc.

 

It was when I was 21? Now it's the prime of life!

 

@Kur i think maybe you misunderstood the OP’s intention, after reading many others’ misinterpretations. The OP indicated the importance of the person he mentioned by sharing the Life Lesson/ Skill he observed in the person, and that it motivated him to emulate him and practice the same good listening/ encouraging over the course of his own life and professional path. I’d say that’s important.

I’m not trying to be rude, but it wasn’t the OP that took this to *another* Famous Person post.

 

I feel like I've seen a documentary, or read an article, on this and it stated the creator was fascinated by origami and had sparked others' developments once they considered the technique. Any truth to that?

Cross-field devs/applications and biomimicry are great.

 

With some notable and obvious exceptions, I've found the vast majority of celebs/important people are usually easy going. Most of them just want people to *NOT* make a big deal out of them.

For example, Jakob Dylan - he's the lead singer (or was) of the Wallflowers. Almost literally ran into him in some artsy fartsy store, and said "whoops" then raised an eyebrow.

He nodded and then held a finger to his lips as if to say "Shhhh."

A few moments later he was outside standing around; I stood next to him and just looked @ the scenery. He said "Hey, thanks for keeping it on the down low." I told him I assumed he liked to be treated like any other dude out there. We made small talk and then shook hands a few minutes later.

I then almost got killed when I told my wife and sister I didn't bother to get his autograph. LOL

 

I have met thousands of self-important people, does that count?

lol

 

I guess this person would be considered important if you consider the possibility of making contact with alien life forms. I got to meet Carl Sagan. He led the first physical message into space on the Pioneer plaque and Voyager Golden Record. He signed my star atlas book. I also got to have breakfast and talk with Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 astronaut who walked on the moon. That was pretty cool. Got to hear what the experience was like first hand.

Both if these gentlemen made me feel that there are no limitations if we just put our minds to it.

 

There are a few origami designs out there but I've never seen any that've flown. And this was invented 30+ years ago so probably has been updated and passed around and was many companies ago. My dad always says he was looking at palm tree leaves outside his office when he came up with it. It's still the highest performance solar array ever flown to this day which is why it's still in concept renderings, and has been on multiple spacecraft and Mars before. He's told a story how to test flutter in Martian wind how he held the panels up in the bed of a truck and had another engineer drive down the road and he had calculated the equivalent speed down a highway to represent the Martian wind and that was the "testing" to verify the aerodynamics. That was in the late 80s or early 90s. Here's some random concept from NASA in 2020 using the same arrays:

 

Freaking JEALOUS! Man what a fortuitous break.

 

Lance M. Fritz, President of Union Pacific Railroad

 

Ask him what he plans to do about the city of Houston threatening to sue lol

 

Not a damn thing, he's bigger fish to fry

 

People dying of cancer over the years is pretty big and if he doesn't see that then maybe it's time his shareholders got them a new president.

 

Yeah I know that story, we actually worked through that area about 5-8 years ago, there are different alternatives to creosote soaked wood ties, there is metal and composite and concrete, but at the cost of it to change all that out.... that's up to the big wigs, it also determines the amount of freight and traffic that goes through that area