The man behind the door

Automotive Industries, July, 2004 by John Peter

Those of you who are regular readers of Automotive Industries knew Gerry Kobe. Gerry's byline accompanied articles that were always well focused, well researched and well written. To me, Gerry was "the man behind the door," quietly sneaking into the office unannounced and often slipping out the same way.

My initial reaction was that he was unfriendly or unsocial, but that was far from the case. He was always on the phone gathering information from his many friends and acquaintances in the business--the people inside, the daily grinders, the ones who knew what was really going on. When he wasn't on the phone he was writing, son, crimes well into the night. I count myself fortunate that I got to spend many afternoons behind that closed door, learning about the auto industry.

I respected Gerry's insight into this business, how he was always able to look beyond the obvious and find the real story. How he wasn't afraid to call an GEM or supplier on the carpet when he felt that they were trying to spin the truth.

He was at his best when he took over the back page of Automotive Industries. One of our former owners decided to put out a weekly fax newsletter and Gerry jumped at the opportunity to write a weekly column. For those of you lucky enough to be on the fax list, Kobe's Beef always told it like it was. Gerry was never short on opinions. When he took over as Executive Editor, the column moved to the magazine. I remember that he reluctantly sat as I shot his column photo. It was never about Gerry. He always preferred to stay out of the limelight, tie made it clear to me the he didn't want any smiling high school yearbook photo accompanying his column.

So he sat, arms folded under his scowling face staring into the camera an image that we fondly referred to as "Grumpy Gerry." This was the Automotive Industries side of Gerry Kobe. But there was a side to Gerry that many of you will never know, Gerry was a caring loving friend, always putting others before himself.

Even after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, he was always more concerned about the welfare of the people on the magazine than he was about his illness. When he could no longer make it into the office, he'd call regularly to see how we were doing and to make sure that everything was all right. And when calling became difficult he called anyway, or if he could get to his computer he'd pop off an e-mail.

I talked to him on the phone a week before he died and he talked very little about the disease that he fought so valiantly. Instead, we talked about his youngest daughter LeAnn, barely a year old and how she loved to come into his room and rattle his tray table, knocking his water glasses over. We laughed.

In one of his last e-marls he confessed to me: "A lot of people would never know this of me but I really didn't care much about cars. I always looked at them as great achievements (be it design of manufacturing or whatever) and just tried to pick up on the vibes that made the car worth talking about.

I know all about the nuts and bolts but they really aren't what gets me jazzed. It's more the human ingenuity and achievement side."

I thank Gerry Kobe for sharing his insight with me. When I joined AI five years ago, you couldn't have convinced me that I would one day be sitting in the Editor-In-Chiefs chair. Without his influence and encouragement, I wouldn't be sitting in this chair right now writing this column.

In that same e-mail he wrote, "If you can honestly say that I ever passed anything along to you that was helpful, I hope you take the time to pass it on to someone else."

That's what I plan to do, though I know I've got some big shoes to fill.

The "man behind the door" quietly left us on May 28, 2004. We'll miss you Gerry.

John Peter is Editor-In-Chief of Automotive Industries.