"I'LL ALWAYS BE PART OF THE CLUB, RIGHT?"

One of the favorite pictures I had the pleasure of taking of
Grady... was driving home when I saw him with his horses,
so I stopped and took a few pictures. He loved horses, golf,
friends and cigars... and of course: Mel!

Mr. Graydon Lantz passed on February 20, sometime before midnight in Oklahoma City. He will be greatly missed.

Grady, as he was affectionately called, was one very special person to everyone whose life he touched. He was one of those people who commanded respect by just the way he conducted himself. A gentleman's gentleman.

Grady loved to play in tournaments,
here with son David in the
Father-Son Tournament

I was never quite comfortable calling him "Grady" when talking to him, even though he said to me long time ago to do so, thus, if I was talking to him, I skipped the name and I said something like "good morning", or "how did you play today". I only uttered the name "Grady" when I was talking about him to others, like this post. He was truly a man liked by everyone and I bet that if you asked ten random people what they thought about Grady, eight would say "old style gentleman", one would say "great guy", the other would say "sweet man"... or all three. One thing that I will remember, is that I never saw Grady not smile when he was talking directly to you.

Grady always attended the employees'
Christmas party with Mel. 

Behind that soft smile that always seemed to be holding a good cigar, there was this sportsmanlike, but killer instinct in any competition, whether in sports or business, he played to win. I am not sure when he took up golf, but I knew that golf, horses, cigars and most of all, family, were his favorite things. In parties, he seldom stayed late, if he attended, and preferred to go home to be with his wife Mel; in golf, he played as hard as he could, never giving up if the round started bad,  and when finished, he just had a glass of tea or soft drink and would go home right away.

The everlasting cigar in his lips,
even when hitting a shot!

I always kidded his regular group that they had changed the rules of "Wolf" in their group so that they would be more competitive with Grady. He didn't care, he just enjoyed friendships, the sunlight, a little competition, and the harder it got to win, the better he felt when he did.

He loved all kids of golf competition, and certainly he liked to play in tournaments, especially those that tested your personal skill (individual tournaments). In the Club Championship, we started a "Super Senior" flight back in 2012 (he was 77 at the time) and though he competed against men 10-12 years younger than him, he was never out of the top three (except once), winning once.

"Deadly" around and on the greens!

The time he finished out of the top three was because he was forced to quit after a near heat stroke by the group he was playing with. He had opened the tournament with a 78 (two better than his age at the time) and was doing very well and on his way to another "Super Senior" title when he got really hot, and his playing companions (who were not in his age group) forced him to quit. Later he admitted that it had been the best thing to do for his health.,,, but at the time, he just wanted to continue playing.

You could count that on July 4th,
Grady would sport a great looking
and patriotic shirt.

Grady the golfer, was not much different than Grady the member, or board member. He took his tasks seriously, and always tried to find the most effective way, with fairness, to resolve an issue in order to succeed, only in this case not for himself, but for the club. Above all, he cared for the club and people, and always wanted to make the best decisions for it's success, sometimes injecting a new perspective on an important issue out of his bank of wisdom, or sometimes by merely playing the "devil's advocate" to bring up a point that no one had thought about, and sometimes by leading on a issue he believed in. In meeting, when at times, people began voicing opinions at the same time and interrupting each other, Grady would wait for the precise moment that he knew he would be heard, he would speak softly, and everyone listened.

Grady giving a "High Five" during a post
tournament challenge. In this photo, he just lost
first place to closest to the pin to the 18th
green. He didn't care, he loved competing.

I had the pleasure of watching play, or of playing with him many times, and he always had this demeanor, this posture, this personality that you knew that he was always playing to win. Period. After the round, he'd sit and be your friend again, but in competition, second place was not his favorite thing.

The last official action on record that Grady took in a board meeting was that of making the motion to hire me as manager of the club last December. Looking back, he seldom was the first one to make a motion to move forward in something, so this was very special to me... (thank you!).

Loved playing with friends in tournaments...

Sometime in early February, he did not feel good and went to the doctor (if I understand correctly, his friends urged him to go after a few days of complaining about his energy level) who sent him to a specialist in Oklahoma City. A few days later the bad and sad news came that he had terminal cancer.
And he never came back to Elk City. While in the hospital, he received family and friends, and the last non-family member to visit was his long time friend, golf companion and fellow board member, Joe Wynn.

... with friends in his daily group... 

During the board meeting of Monday, January 20, just a few hours before Grady passed in Oklahoma City at the Baptist Memorial Hospital, the board members were sharing their "Grady Memories", all sad knowing that he would not come back. Brad Gilbert shared that he had seen him the week before and that he looked great, if no one had told him about the cancer, he would have never guessed that Grady was that sick. Then Joe shared his last visit with him. It was the day before, Sunday the 19th, "at the end of the visit, Grady said to me" Joe recalled with a broken voice, "Joe, I will always be part of the club, right?" YES SIR!... (and of everyone whose life you touched). 

... and even with "strangers", here with my
daughter Paola when they won their flight
in the Tumbleweed Couples. 

Grady, Thank you for the memories and thank you for sharing that unquenchable passion for life with all of us.

BELOW THERE ARE SOME COMMENTS ABOUT GRADY, EITHER POSTED IN FACEBOOK OR SHARED WITH ME PERSONALLY...

"Doc" Ware (First Baptist Church): I was blessed with the honor of leading Grady Lantz to the Lord, That day, he was in pain, but he said to me that it was the greatest day of his life"

Oh yes... he seemed to like the color blue as well!

Joe Wynn: "He was one of my best friends ever. He never said a bad thing about anyone"

Charlie Kauk: "He will be missed, but never forgotten"

Ed Hughes: When I ended in the emergency room and sent a text to the board, I wasn't there five minutes and Grady came in to visit with me. He always cared for the club, but mainly for the people who worked at the club"

Ed Hughes: "He was one of the fairest men I knew in the board over the years. One time when we were going to hire his grandson for the maintenance crew, Grady said to me, 'Don't hire him because of me, hire him if you think he is going to do a good job, and, if you need to fire him, don't keep him because of me either, you do your job, and he needs to do his'... That was Grady", Ed said.