I am sad to say my Grandpa Bass passed away this weekend. He was 98. Wow, I probably really knew him for say 20 years of my life. That is less than one fifth of his. The funeral will be on Friday so I will go to OKC to be with my family. He was my last grandparent left. I did look up to him as a cool self-made man who showed that capitalism does work, which inspired me to be a better person and become a self-made man myself. He was pretty cool and was very witty. He came from a long line of pioneers and had that kind of spirit in him. The Bass pioneering spirit comes from Saffron Walden, Essex, England. In 1630 a 30 year old man named Deacon Samuel Bass set sail to Roxbury, MA and ended up living the rest of his life in Braintree, MA. Deacon Samuel Bass died at the age of 94 with 162 descendants.(They sure did multiply back then) His son John married Ruth Alden the daughter of John Alden from the Mayflower. Then a line of Samuel Bass's can be seen, fighting in the Revolutionary war and active in the church of the time. In 1845 Josiah Quincy Bass was born in Ohio. He was my grandpa's grandpa. (see here) Josiah Bass left Ohio and went on one of the great Oklahoma land runs in the late 19th century that founded Oklahoma City. His son Harry Boylston Bass (Grandpa's father) owned his own furniture shop in OKC in the early 1900s. George W. Bass was born in 1907. He met my grandmother and went to college at Oklahoma State. He then enlisted in the Army and served in WWII. I believe he was in intelligence and was one of the photographers in Germany. He'll tell you the story about how he had 19 years and 9 months of military duty and how he got out just before the Korean war began, missing his 20 years to get military retirement. He then formed George W. Bass Insurance and proceeded to sell property insurance up until he retired. He is survived by my Dad William S. Bass, my Aunt Linda, me, my sister Melinda, my Half Brother Ron Bass and 2 great grand-kids. That's 7 Descendants. Compared to 162 you can see a big difference in the cultures of the day. I will always remember his suits. He had tons of different multi-colored suits and ties. He always wore a golf cap as well. He was a very likable guy. He was pretty cool. I'll miss you grandpa.