A Eulogy For My Grandfather Ken Overholt

My grandfather passed away on October 27th at the age of 89. The following is the eulogy I gave at his funeral. I am not posting this in search of sympathy or because I am proud of the these words (which I am).

I post it here for two reasons.

1. My grandfather was an extremely important part of my life and he was a huge supporter of my journey towards a healthier life. Over the last few years every time I saw him he would always greet me with, "Hi Ya Skinny!"

2. Due to the random nature of the Internet hopefully this page will be stumbled upon by someone searching for "Ken Overholt" allowing my Grandfathers memory to live on.


My Grandfather
A Remembrance

About ten years ago I met someone at a party who knew my Grandfather from way back in the day, back when Grandpa was still selling cars.

This man said to me, “Your Grandfather is the best salesman I have ever met. There is not a thing in the world he couldn’t sell and not a person on the planet he couldn’t sell it to”

I won’t lie to you that made me proud. Who doesn’t want their Grandfather to be famous? But being a famous salesman is not what made me most proud of him.

Because even back then I had figured out something fundamental about my grandfather. At his core, being a salesman was not what defined Ken Overholt.

A salesman was what my grandfather was… it was not who he was.

Who Ken Oveholt was, was a dreamer.

My grandfather looked at the world differently.

In his eyes every piece of junk had the potential to be something great.

This is the way he saw people too. In his eyes every person had the potential for greatness.

This is what made my Grandfather such a great salesman.

It’s the same thing that made such a great man.

He wasn’t selling things, he was selling happiness.

I believe that every car he sold, every machine, everything, was simply his way of trying to make people happy. He was doing his part to make their dreams come true.

For my grandfather being a salesman was never about making a sale, it was about giving people joy, the only way he knew how.

Ken Overholt was never Willy Loman, if anything he was Walt Disney.


Over the past week we have had the opportunity to gather together to grieve and rejoice, to share stories and to talk about what Grandpa meant to each of us.

Every single person at some point said the same thing; most of them had the chance to say it to Grandpa himself.

“Ken, This is what you gave to me."

"Ken, This is what you taught me.”

It was obvious to me that Grandpa’s dreams were infectious.

But I guess that has always been obvious to me.

I am so very fortunate to have had such a close relationship with my grandfather my whole life.

We worked together, we played together and he always encouraged me to follow my dreams.

All that time we spent together has had a major impact on my life.

It is one of the foundations of who I became as a person.

Because I too am a dreamer and a schemer.

And we all know my grandfather dreamed up a lot of schemes.

To Ken Overholt every musical instrument had the potential to make beautiful music…whether he knew how to play it or not.

Every car had the potential to be a vintage Oldsmobile convertible.

Every boat has the potential to take you some place you’ve always dreamed of going

And every lamp had the potential to shine bright… no matter how old or rusty it may be.

Thank you grandpa, thank you for teaching me to chase after my dreams. Thank you for teaching me to always see the potential instead of the limitations.

That is what my grandfather gave to me and I am eternally grateful.