Johnny Isakson: “I wish to pay tribute to a great American and a great Georgian who passed away last week in Atlanta, GA. The cities of…”

“I wish to pay tribute to a great American and a great Georgian who passed away last week in Atlanta, GA. The cities of Wilson, WY, and Atlanta, GA, lost a great citizen last week, America lost a great patriot, and philanthropy lost one of its greatest contributors. Carl Knobloch passed away last Friday. Carl was a personal friend of mine and a unique individual and a unique inspiration to me and many others. He was a gentleman who went to the Hill School, then went to Harvard, and then went to Yale. He was a leading intercollegiate fencer and won an international medal for his intercollegiate fencing ability. He went into business using everything he learned as a Baker Scholar at Yale University. He went into business. His first business was a drive-in theater in Zimbabwe. His second business was an oil and gas business in Africa. He then went on to build businesses all over the United States of America dealing with natural resources, dealing with gas and oil. He was a specialist in taking companies that were failing and turning them around and making them profitable. Do you know how he did it? He believed that everybody who had helped him succeed ought to have equity in the projects he succeeded in, so he made people who owned failing companies that he took over equity partners so that when he turned the company around, they profited from the work they put in to save the company. That is a great leader of business.…”