Somebody somewhere talked about Jim Kimsey as Washington’s John Wayne. Washington sports king and Ted Leonsis, Kimsey’s good friend and partner at AOL, the internet access company which Kinsey helped found, said on his blog, “He reminded me of a local Clint Eastwood type of hero. He had that kind of charisma.”
Kimsey, who died at the age of 76 of melanoma, had all kinds of charisma, as a point of fact, which perhaps accounts for the fact that he could move like a light-footed dancer through board rooms and bars with equal grace, always adding to occasions and places by his presence and considerable charm.
If you want to think of Kimsey as embodied, you might want to think of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Gatsby, blessed with being able to move in and inhabit the American dream. Kimsey achieved much: He was blessed with intelligence, an ability to combine style with a certain Irish raffishness. He had a personable quality that was probably pretty hard to resist. He had the gift of gab, hard work and a little luck to go with it. He was generous with the rewards of his success and with the gift of his friendship. He made money — lots of it — and he made friends — lots of them.
Everyone says and knows the same thing — that when all was said and then done, that when was introduced to a small tech company called Control Video, history shifted. Steve Case, a young marketer who had made his bones at Pizza and Kimsey got together and would eventually turn Control Video into America On Line, with Kimsey as founding chairman and chief executive, and Case taking on the role of executive vice president.
The rest as they say is history, with the company shooting off like a hot train. Kimsey, it’s probably fair to say, provided leadership, connections, vision and optimism, if not digital know-how. Some years later, when the Georgetowner interviewed Kimsey in his office, we saw a computer in his office, but Kimsey, in typically off-handed humor said that he had never really learned to use it properly.
Kimsey’s shares in AOL brought him wealth of the kind that Gatsby dreamed about. He left in 1995 and became an icon of charitable giving, power-brokering, a supporter of the arts and culture, especially the Kennedy Center and he lived large and moved about the city and its upper echelon environs, at parties, galas, receptions, the opera and board meetings with a certain swagger. There was never anything boorish about that — his pictures was constantly in the glossies, the society pages, almost always in the company of spectacular women, including Queen Noor of Jordan, and other classy ladies.
He looked good doing what he did — whether it was Fight Night or the symphony.
Not bad for a kid who grew up in Washington in less than wealthy circumstances, got ejected from Gonzaga College High School, got re-instated, went to West Point, served as a legendary Ranger in the U.S. Army in Viet Nam, where he also supported an orphanage, got involved in the restaurant business in Washington and owned some famous spots, including Bullfeathers and the Exchange.
He is survived by three sons — Mark, of McLean, Michael of Prague and Raymond of Washington.
When people who knew him, intimately or in passing, learned of his death, it’s not difficult to imagine they felt the loss, as if a little bit of an original kind of energy had left the room, replaced briefly by memories, whether truckloads or just as a moment.
Jim Kimsey gave wealth and wealthy people, often the target of resentment these days, a good name — and enjoyed his wealth of family and friends for all the best reasons.
(There will be a funeral Mass at 10 a.m., Saturday, March 5, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew.)
