Every once in a while someone will briefly come into your life and leave a lasting impression on you. I met Gehrig Chambless on a video shoot two years ago and I knew he was special.
He was only a high school senior but he could hold his own talking to college students. His attributes of intellect, politeness, good looks, and creativity stood out from the first hour I met him. I was not surprised to learn later that he was also the starting quarterback on his high school football team and tied a national high school baseball record for triples in a single game (4).
You didn’t know where he was going, but you knew he had a huge amount of potential. (Screenwriting was just one of his interests.) Unfortunately, in April he died in an accident. He was just 21. I’m saddened that the world will never benefit from all that he had to offer. At his memorial service his poem The Lonely Tavern was read and I was moved by it. This morning I came across the college publication where it was printed in 2018.
P.S. Gehrig (who was named after Yankee great Lou Gehrig) enjoyed spending time in northern Minnesota which is where Bob Dylan was born and raised. As I read The Lonely Tavern again this morning it made he think of Dylan’s Shelter from the Storm.