The Legend of Jack Lemley - Introduction

The first time I saw Jack Lemley was the absolute perfect introduction to who he is, I just didn't know it at the time. I was sitting in "my seat" at my favorite Starbucks at 18th and State in Boise, Idaho. I was outside on their patio, the exact seat I am sitting in now, a spot I have occupied for almost exactly five and a half years now. No matter the weather, no matter the temperature, this is where I sit. My justification for spending this much time at Starbucks, and money, is that it is significantly cheaper than therapy.  

So, as I sat enjoying my morning, and watching people come and go, I noticed this older gentleman on a GIANT tricycle roll by on the sidewalk about twenty feet in front of me. Just as he passed me, he took a hard right, a ninety-degree turn, onto the walkway that runs in front of the Starbucks and then runs down the length of the attached shopping area. He powered up the slight grade and then took another hairpin turn by the pillar that is five feet to my right. He cruised to a stop with a very strong, yet pleasant, "mind if I park my bike here?" A phrase I have since heard dozens, if not hundreds, of times. I replied with the most jovial "sure" I could muster, not that Jack was waiting for a reply. He climbed off his very adult-sized tricycle while unbuckling his bike helmet, almost all in one motion, and placed the helmet in the four-foot square basket off the back of the trike, unclipped the six-foot orange flag pole from the back corner, and laid that across the basket, said "thanks," and shuffled off to the front door of Starbucks.

This was the perfect introduction to Jack because he was not really asking. He was very politely saying I am going to park my bike here, but I want you to feel like you have a choice in the matter. He was pleasant and polite, and yet had an air of importance about him that I would only much later come to understand. Jack is not arrogant, he is not cocky, well maybe a little, but mostly he is just confident!! Incredibly confident, and with good reason. If ever anyone had the right to be arrogant, or cocky, or even downright rude, it would be Jack Lemley, but he instead chooses to simply be pleasant and humble, comfortable in the knowledge that he is, in fact, a legend, a hero, a world-renowned explorer, and conqueror. Jack knows what he has done with, and in, his lifetime, and he knows that very few, if any, could ever have accomplished what he has in his eighty-four years. Jack has done all of this with a confidence and a decisiveness that is typically reserved for the Michael Jordan's, and Tom Brady's of the world. Jack has faced incredibly difficult decisions daily throughout his life, and in parts of this world, and at a time, where getting a clean glass of water would have been a monumental task, and he moved mountains, built cities, built relationships, friendships, and allies in multiple languages, with people the leaders of our country struggled to relate to at the time.

These days Jack spends a few hours, or more, each day sitting in this Starbucks with his right-hand man, or better yet partner in crime, Steve. Steve and Jack have been Batman and Robin, Starsky and Hutch, Michael and Scotty, Kirk and Spock, for almost forty years! Butch and Sundance are probably more apropos. Just like all epic partnerships they had their moments where one went one way and one the other, but they have always come back together and always been there for each other. They give each other crap, bicker at times like an old married couple, no offense to all the old married couples out there, but they keep showing up for each other, hanging out, keeping each other company, keeping each other honest, and supporting each other.

Their routine at Starbucks is simply amazing, for anyone that pays attention. They share a table, almost always the same table. Whichever one gets to Starbucks first will stake the table out. If it is Jack that arrives first, he will do essentially what he did with me day one on the trike, "would you mind if I 'share' your table with you?" He is most often putting his bag down on the open side of the table while asking the question and moving into HIS seat. Regardless, by the time they have both arrived they are at their table with their coffee beverages and working their way through the New York Times, together, each with their sections of the paper, and each section in the same order each day. The baristas bring their drinks to THEIR table for them, including ice waters, and then when Jack is done with his 1st coffee, or to be more precise, iced chai latte, he uses his Starbucks status for a free refill of just plain black coffee and half of that goes in Steve's cup to warm his up and Jack gets what is left. Every day, day in and day out, almost such that one could set a watch by it.

These days the routine has not been as reliable as each of them wage an absolute war on the aging process! Each one having their own issues. Steve is battling, and struggling at times, with his Parkinson's. Some days are better than others, but over the years that I have observed the duo and gotten to know them a bit, the progression is obvious. Nonetheless, they have just worked his struggles into the routine by starting off with a big stack of napkins to Steve's right so he can keep the table clean as he goes, and they have both now graduated to some pretty fancy walkers as Jack has recently had a repaired hip give out on him causing a fall and now a hip replacement, not to be denied, however, because just this morning Jack got his wife Pam to break him out of his rehab facility to drive them to Starbucks for the first time since his fall. All of this just simply adding to the legend! The adventures these days may be more mortal in nature, however, the approach and resolve with which both of these lifelong friends battles is still epic!

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Having grown up in the family I did, and around the true giants I did, at least in my youthful mind, first seeing Jack, and then being made aware of who he was and just a little of what he had done with his life, is what gave me an immediate connection to both he and Steve. They brought me back to "the uncles," as they were most often referred to. They would have both fits in extremely well with that group, although I have to say that both Jack and Steve would have outclassed the uncles in many, if not all, respects. I am not sure if it is their intellect, or their sheer drive and desire, or the fact that from a management standpoint Jack was so far ahead of the rest of the world, but they definitely would have added quite a bit to the group I grew up idolizing.

All of Jack's life, or at least his adult life, he has done things, used "tools," that just now are being written about, lauded, applauded even. You will hear many people in their Ted Talks, or their leadership books discuss "7 habits of highly effective people," or "5 levels of leadership," and yet these are quite literally ALL things that Jack has been doing for the better part of the last sixty-plus years.

One of the most amazing things Jack has done in his life, to chronicle his life, is write EVERYTHING down, make note of everything he did, when he did it and why. All of the conversations he had along the way, all the obstacles he had to overcome, any and all issues that arose along the way he "journaled" about. Jack was journaling half a CENTURY before anyone started talking about and writing about the importance and the benefits of journaling. He would get on a plane and journal, he would sit in the backseat of the car driving him home to Connecticut from New York City, or just in a temporary shelter in Papua New Guinee. He wrote things down, and chronicled his life, all along the way.

Jack also made it a habit, from his first-ever project in San Francisco, to read all the fine print on everything. Jack would become an absolute expert at reading contracts and learning and understanding every little detail of who was supposed to do what, when, and for how much. To this day, when he tells these stories of the various projects he has run, all over this planet, he knows all the specifics, the names of the key players, their roles, their strengths, and weaknesses. He will occasionally get an assist from Steve, who also has a simply incredible mind, and the two may debate the particulars a bit, but the details are still there. In this regard Jack reminds me of some of the older, and wiser, coaches that have come back to the NFL, or NBA, or College football and basketball to be extremely successful. Probably the most successful example would be Dick Vermeil. Dick Vermeil came out of retirement, at an age at the time that was considered downright OLD for a head coach, to turn the then St. Louis Rams around and win a Super Bowl nineteen years since his last conference championship, and thirty years after he first started coaching in the NFL in 1963.

I firmly believe that if the world were open-minded enough that age was not a factor in decision-making at the highest levels, Jack could be consulting on any number of national and world issues in infrastructure, disaster management, and contracts.