Much has been written over the past few days about the recent death of John T. Capps. The headlines heralded him as a great humanitarian and as a legend in Rotary International. He was both and much more. I met John in January 2019 at a very challenging time in my life. You see, my wife was in a Richmond hospital recovering from a life threatening disease and I was relocating my donut shop from a hurricane ravaged storefront by the pier to its current location on Emerald Drive. John reminded me that each day offers us the opportunity to make choices in our life. We can spend the day cleaning or spend the day reading, he said. We can go out to dinner or cook at home. We can set our alarm early to go in and make the donuts or we can sleep in and not open my Flip Flops Donut shop. We can choose to think positively or choose to think negatively. John taught me that being optimistic is a daily choice we should all make. When John looked at life, he saw the proverbial glass always half-full and he focussed on all that could be done with that half a glass of water. He reminded me that every day was an opportunity to add more to your life and your community. And he imparted that wisdom on me every time I saw him during Leadership Carteret 2019 and every time he visited my FlipFlops donut shop in Emerald Isle. Carteret County will miss John's enthuuuuuuusiasm and so will I.
As I think about John at this minute, I am looking at the business card he gave me. The card lists three occupations under his name. The first is Bald Funny Guy. John began losing his hair as a student at Campbell College (now University.) Invited to apply for a position in a major bank, John had an awesome interview, or so he thought. Just before returning home, he was told that the bank was marketing itself to young people and looking for someone who had hair. With baldness being associated with an older, more mature crowd, John wasn't getting the job. As John put it to me, it's more important what's in the head than what's on top of it. So, John called his father and a couple of his mother’s brothers who were bald and said, 'hey let's be proud of every hair we don't have and, with that, John started Bald Headed Men of America. Founded in 1973 BHMA is an organization for men and women everywhere who understand that "Bald is Beautiful". The New York Times said, "The essence of BHMA is humor tempered by a healthy dose of self-acceptance."
The second occupation listed on John’s business card is Author. John wrote “How To Survive Your Year As A Leader” a book of true stories and conversations that will help you in your journey to create a life that’s prosperous, balanced and full of joy and laughter. John wanted to make headway in life and show how you can too! The third occupation under John’s name on his business card is Enthusiastic Speaker. And, every time I heard John speak, he focussed his message on three guiding principles: making headway, committing to service and promoting enthusiasm or as John always put it, Enthuuuuuuusiasm. I am thankful for being able to count John as a friend and I am going to miss him.
No task, apparently, was ever too small for John’s attention. For example, there’s the time when John and friends collected old bicycles that they repaired for individuals, mostly homeless, who were facing life’s challenges and needed some form, any form, of transportation. This story exemplifies John’s ability to meet people wherever they were in life and extend a helping hand without ever judging them or ever think he was doing anything special. On a larger scale there was the time John decided to organize a welcome home celebration for Marines returning from war-torn Lebanon in the 1980’s. Working with less than a three-week window, John set out to do what most of his friends thought was an impossible mission. But impossible was a word that wasn’t in John’s vocabulary and when the returning Marines arrived at the Morehead City State Port, thousands of well-wishers and welcome banners lined the roadway from the state port all the way to the convoy’s final destination in Jacksonville. And, speaking of large scale, natural disasters were like a magnet for John’s enthuuuuusiasm. He didn’t think twice about raising aid or providing direct assistance if he saw the opportunity, and that’s why rebuilding communities in Carteret County devastated by hurricanes Floyd and Florence occurred more quickly under his watch.
Carteret County is richer for having had John T. Capps the III in our midst as am I. Both can honor his commitment to the Crystal Coast by going about our day and showing our neighbors support, empathy, gratitude, inspiration and, most importantly, enthuuuuuusiasm every chance we get. To learn more about how you can follow in John’s footsteps,
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