Mario Andretti clipped me on a scooter at Road America when i was a little kid. Apparently he has a history of reckless scooter driving. My father seized the moment to deliver the perfect line and shouted out "hey who do you think you are? Mario Andretti?" True story

Good one.
I was at a race one weekend and he came darting past me in a huge hurry trying to get into this restricted area where the transports were and the 19 year-old security guard in in the three sizes two big blazer stopped him dead in his tracks and demanded his credentials. I was impressed that he didn't give him the old "do yo know who I am?!!"
Instead he threw everything out of his pockets trying to find the pass that wasn't in his lanyard apparently. He found it and ran down the road like he was in an F1 car again.
I started laughing and asked the kid if he knew who that was. He looked at me blankly when I said "Mario Andretti the last American F1 World Champion".

Mine was the man that followed him...Buzz Aldrin. I don't know if he is the most interesting, but certainly the most "famous" interesting.

He was a neighbor for a few years, and a really nice guy. He hated people that think/say the moon landing was a hoax. He wanted to meet them and punch them in the face.

He had a really nice convertible 450SL with "MOON AGN" as his license. Man that was a long time ago.

I also got to meet Buzz & unfortunately his wife Lois. It was outside a Oscar party, Buzz didn't talk much but his wife more than made up for it. I was amazed & glad to see all the attention Buzz got from the paparazzi!

When I was a kid I flew from LAX to MCI (Kansas City) and sat by Ernest Borgnine (an actor for you young ones out there) I thought he was just some older guy and didn't understand that he was famous at the time. When we were getting off the plane, people were pointing and commenting. I thought they were looking at me! This was in the 70s.

The most interesting person I've met is Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life).

For someone who has a book that has sold more copies than any other book in print outside of the Bible, he is a very grounded person and very nice to be around too. He gives away something like 95% of his royalties, which is his only source of income, and doesn't have any interest in material possessions.

I'm afraid all that wealth would go to my head and I'd have a 12 car garage...

I've met a bunch of famous people too, but they weren't interesting in person... just famous. For example, I sat next to Robert Englund (Freddie Krueger) on a plane years ago and he was a complete jerk and I wasn't asking him fan-type questions because I had no idea who he was.

Jerry Bruno
 

Jerry was a blue collar worker from Wisconsin who got involved in local politics. He then worked in state politics, and ultimately in a variety of national campaigns to include both JFK and RFK. Despite not having finished high school he had an incredibly sharp mind for politics and was an exemplary advance man. Along with Jeff Greenfield he wrote the book, "The Advance Man." As a political science under graduate in the early 70's I was fortunate to take two courses which he taught at the State University of New York at Oswego. I learned more about real politics from Jerry than from all my other professors combined. A great guy. Down to earth, and always willing to share his vast knowledge and experiences on several national campaigns.

As a student I worked in the Prime Ministers Office in Canada...met all kinds of people from Wayne Gretzky, to the Sutherlands, Bono, Royalty, Presidents etc. But the most interesting person was Nelson Mandela...what an incredible man, it had a lasting effect on me.

Vikram Pandit - ex CEO of Citigroup. Sat next to me at our building in Jacksonville with his security detail. Really a normal dude worth hundreds of millions and at that time was in such a bad spot in the news. Knowing what responsibility he had vs what I had was funny when I thought about it. Nice guy though.

Rick Warren, yay! Rick Rocks. I only give away about 15% of my income before taxes but I'm working on it. :)
I've met Erland Van Lideth, at a High School summer Wrestling camp, he used to be an Olympic wrestler and was an Engineer, as am I...He was humble and cool.
Bill Johnson...pastor of Bethel fellowship in CA.
My adoptive father who took me and my sister on with my Mom when I was 4.
My biological father that left me when I was less than a year old.
A couple of modern astronauts, including robonaut.
The real Dr. that the TV series "Quincy MD" was modeled after.
Walter Mondale
Ned Overrend
Ruthie Matthess
My boss...he always has a great "sage" piece of advice to put a positive spin on the daily work grind. What a great person.

Phil Hill, Ferrari factory driver & 1st American World Champion driver. I took Saleen's entry to Road&Track's "Fastest Car made in America 1995" to the Firestone test track in Stockton TX. Phil Hill was the topspeed driver for all the cars. (Saleen 351 SR, Hennessy Viper, Lingenfelter Firebird Formula, Doug Rippey ZR1 Corvette, Vortech Engineering Z28 Camaro)
6 Years later I was lucky enough to deliver a new MBZ S class to Phil at his home in Santa Monica to drive to Pebble Beach, when I arrived at his house he was prepping his 1935 ish? PierceArrow for display at Pebble. It had won Best-in-show in 1955. Currently on "Chasing Classic Cars" Wayne Carrini goes to this same house that was built by Phil's Father, & drives the PierceArrow. The PierceArrow was bought new by Phil's Family. About 5 years ago I attended Phil Hill's funeral at a church near his house.
His longtime friend Carroll Shelby was there, a Cobra was parked in front of the church along with several other notable classic cars.


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