Local Runner, Greg Kuhl, Passes Suddenly
- Home
- Announcement
- Local Runner, Greg Kuhl, Passes Suddenly
Local Runner, Greg Kuhl, Passes Suddenly
With surprise and sadness, we acknowledge the death of long time Calgarian runner, Gregory M. Kuhl, during Friday’s Run The Bridges 5 km race in Calgary. He was iconic in the incredible number of events he attended within the running community. A former member of the Calgary Roadrunners and a past employee of the Running Room, he was widely known by Alberta runners for his friendly, easy-going nature.
While not noted for his running speed in later years, he consistently attended multiple events weekly and took pride in having participated in over a hundred events in the past year! He relished the opportunity to expound to the post-run coffee crowd the great aspects of all the nearby races and runs he’d enjoyed. In this way, he became an outstanding ambassador for the running community and had friends far and wide.
While many of us only knew him from the casual friendly chats we’d have with him at the Start line, those who knew him longer were aware of Greg’s life before Calgary. He was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in the 23rd round of the 1972 MLB June Amateur Draft from Jefferson Davis High School (Montgomery, Alabama). Details of his brief baseball career can be found at this link:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=kuhl–001gre
Knowing Greg’s sense of humour, he’d not be upset to have it known that, like other greats before him, he passed away on Good Friday! Thankfully, he was spared an agonizing death on the cross, but sadly, there’s no anticipation of a second coming.
You will be sadly missed, Greg, rest in peace….
7 Comments
Eddie NEWTON April 29, 2019 at 11:55 am
I played baseball with Greg while growing up Babe Ruth, allstars and at Jeff Davis High School. Great competitor and great teammate. His Dad coached for years in the leagues. He will be missed. So sorry to hear about his passing.
Tim May 6, 2019 at 7:03 pm
From Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Tennessee, I wrote this for some of his old friends from his newspaper days. I thought I’d share. Apologies for the language. I’m a newspaperman.
Greg Kuhl, a great friend and reporter who has been loyal to me despite the fact our paths diverged 30 or 40 years ago, is dead.
He was 65. He was running a 5K on Good Friday. He collapsed. Dead.
I have been shaken all day since I learned this.
We’d been in touch, via Facebook and email, on a regular basis, talking politics, journalism, friendship … and he never stopped scouting out job opportunities for me. One of the few who actually did try to help me and my family ever since I was “voluntarily” bought out by the morning newspaper here 12 years ago.
If you’ve ever been 55, almost 56, and all you had ever wanted to be was a newspaperman, then you may have some idea of the pain, psychological and physical, caused by that event.
Greg was among the first to reach out when he heard. He had moved from his own newspaper career, retired early, gone to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he became a full-time member of the mammoth running community there.
I was trying to write something fancy about Greg here, but it’s hard. Maybe some other day.
Here’s where I started: He ran … well, kinda loped … across Clarksville, usually down Memorial Drive … or wherever he could find a more-or-less flat roadway or trail back when we worked together.
I was, as he joked, The Ayatollah Ghianni, or just Tim. The former, because back then, when we worked together, or 30 or 40 years ago, the Ayatollah Khomeini had caused the political demise of a nicely ineffective president with lust in his heart and fear of attacking rabbits.
Nobody will know what the hell I’m talking about unless you are at least my age. Suffice it to say that the Ayatollah killed the political career of a president who wore sweaters (like Mr. Rogers) and the Iraniann despot at the same time launched another one to power. He raised all flavors of Iranian hell as the despot who forced the corrupt and ruthless Shah of Iran – a pal of the USA – from power before undoing our nation’s political picture.
Greg, by the way, always referred to the new American president as “Ronald Ray-Gun” and make a shooting motion with his fingers. Fingers, by the way, that had him just shy of earning his cup of coffee in the majors during his baseball career. I’m sure he was bitter when he turned in his jock, but he carried on.
Enough of that, but when he called me Ayatollah, I called him “Captain Kuhl.” Just sounded good. Like a cartoon character. And Greg would admit that he had kind of a cartoonish appearance, something that would make a nice caricature.
Anyway, Captain Kuhl, or “Cappy,” was not mocking me or anything. It was newsroom humor, the kinda stuff that, like newsrooms, really doesn’t exist anymore in this politically correct society. Nobody approves of plastic vomit or exploding cigarette jokes anymore. Doesn’t work on Twitter or Instagram….
Yeah, at work, I was pretty much the “second-in-command” of the old Leaf-Chronicle newsroom back then – no matter what my official title. I wasn’t a despot, though. I probably was too nice for my own good. And I sure liked to drink and otherwise enjoy when the workday was done….
So did Greg.
I’ll just say that back then, we were young, generally worked seven-day weeks. We lived hard and worked hard and I always had the backs of my comrades in ink. Always. Right up until some of my comrades participated by turning their backs in my professional execution back in 2007.
Anyway, Greg was the basically gentle reporter with perennial nervous acne who fought with the publisher for the right to cover, with photos, an ongoing and fiery Klan rally just on the other side of Boot Hill, in the New Providence section of Clarksville.
I can’t remember who the publisher was back then, either Jim Charlet, Gene Washer or Luther Thigpen, and I really can’t remember how much of the Klan rally got printed. But whatever he did, Greg did it with passion and a sense of righteous indignation. He would have spat on the imperial dragon or whatever those hateful fuckers call their leader, I’m sure, if he’d gotten close enough. I did once. Or maybe that was just spittle from my mouth while I was talking.
But this is about Greg Kuhl. He was a reporter with soul.
Anyway, I was going to go on and do a long essay on him, but it hurts too much. I did write something for my fellow “News Brothers” that appeared on our Facebook Page today.
Forgive some of the language, but Greg would approve. Well, he didn’t use much foul language, but he’d expect it from the guy he also occasionally addressed as “Dad.” There is a long and traumatic story behind that, but I’ve survived, so I’ll let it go.
Here’s what I wrote earlier:
Greg Kuhl….He died. He was a true newsman.
He left the L-C before our News Brothers era happened, but he stood for all we stood for: Ethics, the truth, fairness, friends and the importance of loyalty.
I communicated with him regularly and we would laugh about what has happened to the world. But he remembered, especially, loyalty to old friends who actually may need a friend or the help of a friend or just a kind word. He tried to get me connected with a publisher in New York. He and I spoke about his beloved dog, Blue. We spoke about the news and the weakness of the media today.
Some of you are still members of the media — I was cast out and there are those of you who never offered even a consoling word or a note of encouragement.
But Greg, who I hadn’t worked with in more than 35 years or longer, he remembered who I was and how I had helped him in his career. To those of you who have forgotten me or forgotten Rob Dollar or Jerry Manley … fellows who you worked with sometime in your lives, shame on you.
Take that Selfie and stare yourself in your eyes and see how you’ve measured up in the friendship category.
Thanks to Greg, who by now surely has hooked up with Tony Durr and The Stranger and Scott “Badger” Shelton. This world sucks and it is hard to be out here battling when “friends” seemingly don’t give half a shit. Greg gave a shit and a half.
With love, Flapjacks … aka, “The Ayatollah.”
John Staed May 9, 2019 at 1:22 pm
Thanks, for this Tim. I love that you can remember all this stuff about Greg, things I’d forgotten long ago. I am hurting myself over this because I thought here’s a guy who would outlive all of us. God bless.
Liam Somers May 18, 2019 at 8:48 am
Thanks for posting this Tim. You’ll be happy to know Greg had a great sendoff here in Calgary yesterday.
I’m wondering if you have any articles that Greg wrote for the Clarksville paper or later at the Kansas city Star?
Mianne Irick May 7, 2019 at 9:37 am
I knew Greg from his Kansas City Star days, and he was an avid runner back then too. We’ve lost a kind, intelligent, articulate and generous friend.
Barbara Hardt May 17, 2019 at 11:54 am
I am one of the Calgary Road Runners who saw Greg regularly running along, sometimes even slower than me , in disparate races over many years. I was shocked and saddened by his passing away at a much too young age. I was also amazed at the outpouring of grief from his former co-workers, who told of a Greg I never knew, and now will never have a chance to know. He will be missed.
Dr Robert Zerby August 13, 2019 at 2:13 pm
Greg was my running partner at Ohio University ( Athens Ohio USA ) in 1979. I nicknamed him ” The Giant ” . He loved running and really loved the post-marathon food 🙂 He frequently wrote of his runs in Calgary, the BEAR sightings on the trail runs and the 5k’s on super cold days ! He was really crushed when his dog Blue passed away. He grieved for a long time before getting his new pup, and joked when the new pup chewed up his best running shoes 🙂 I’m very sad that my friend passed away but he died doing what he loved best … running with his pals. Sincerely, Dr Robert Zerby ( email: robertzerby@hotmail.com )