Friday, July 08, 2011

George Kimball, 1943- 2011, RIP

Tom Russell emailed to say that George Kimball, our greatest boxing writer and a damn brave fighter himself, died the night before last after a seven year battle with cancer, during which time he wrote or edited five books. I most recently linked to his website and books in this post here (scroll down).

Like most larger than life figures, he embodied contradictions. He was a radical in politics but a traditionalist in most matters-- see his remarks on Dickens in the links; a lifelong vegetarian who was a fan of my writing on birds of prey (one of two-- Sy Montgomery is the other-- I know of). Stories by his friends here and here will give you some idea.

We hung around many of the same bars in my youthful days but I was in too much awe of him to approach him-- and maybe a bit scared. That story about his "keeping an eye out for you" (or on you) was already making the rounds then, as was the one about how he covered the Boston Marathon by stopping at every bar en route. There are a LOT of bars on that route.

We never met, but in recent times he had generous things to say about my writing. Thanks and adieu-- and may "the sacred ginmill" never close...

2 comments:

dr. hypercube said...

I heard about his passing on the radio this morning - Charlie Pierce had a nice remembrance. http://onlyagame.wbur.org/2011/07/09/charlie-pierce-31

dr. hypercube said...

...and what Charlie said on the radio is almost the same as what he wrote at your second link in the Globe/Boston.com.