A hard headed Irishman makes his exit . . .
I’m sure that none of you reading these words ever knew George Kimball. He was covering music and sports for “The Boston Phoenix” when I first met him in the 1960s. We would do our drinking at a pub named Jack’s on Mass Avenue in Cambridge, across the street from the Orson Welles Theater. Actually, George did the drinking and I just added some conversation. I knew better than to match drinks with a hard headed Irishman.
He met Bonnie Raitt about that time. She was a Radcliffe student starting her music career and she would toss down a glass or three with George and me. He was really some piece of work with a sense of the bizarre that seemed to fit the times. George had a glass eye which he would pop out and drop into his drink. Then he’d turn to the stranger sitting next to him and say, “Keep an eye on my eye while I take a piss.”
George came to the opening on my New York City photography exhibit at Chelsea Market last month. He was badly weakened with cancer but he insisted on making the lengthy trek from one end of the Market to the other to see everything.
We talked a little bit about boxing and he thanked me for the Cassius Clay photo that I had given to him (and co-writer John Shulian) for a recent book. I gave him the photo a gift because a friendship like that was beyond a couple of bucks.
Sometimes I really miss the days when I was a sportswriter banging it out against a deadline with a guy sitting at the Linotype machine waiting for my copy. George knew how it was back then because blood in your veins is good but printer’s ink was better.
So here’s one last goodbye to a boxing writing who knew his stuff and how to get it delivered.
I’ll keep an eye on his eye til I see him again . . .
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/obituaries/articles/2011/07/09/george_kimball_at_67_covered_glory_days_of_boxing/