It is a story that feels appropriate, given that we should still be holding onto Veterans Day. And shock of shocks, the story has roots in golf, the sport around which my world revolves.
Now, yes, Tim Gray would be considered a loose connection to golf. He’s not a player, nor is he a tournament official, caddie, swing coach, equipment rep, nor a player-agent, which are the usual links within my world. Only Tim Gray has more soul, more passion, more empathy than so many who’ve crossed my path that his story commands attention.
“He deserves a lot of recognition,” said Jim Nantz, the icon of sports broadcasting. “Tim is doing something every American should applaud.”
Were you to consider the odds against which Tim Gray is working – so many in our citizenry have zero respect for history and even less interest in studying it, after all – you might think his mission is extraordinarily difficult. But to know him is know how a relentless passion can carry you to uncanny distances and make a wonderful dream come true.
“When I got out of TV in 2004,” said Gray, a native Rhode Islander who worked for Channel 10 in Providence and also for an NBC affiliate in Orlando, Fla., “I told my father that I wanted to make World War II documentaries.”
The prevailing attitude with the father and so many others was “good luck with that,” laughed Gray, but guess what? Since the introduction of his first film in 2006 – “D-Day: The Price of Freedom” – Tim Gray and his team at wwiifoundation.org have created a remarkable series of 45 priceless films that inform, educate, teach, and ignite the spirit within. (There is also their International Museum of World War II in Wakefield, R.I.)
PBS has been the launching pad for these movies, which also find their way onto streaming channels such as The History Channel.
“He’s a great figure in preserving World War II and he’s leaving this gift for future generations,” said Nantz, who has narrated six of Gray’s films and is equally pained that more people in our immediate world do not have a greater respect for the importance of World War II.
“It helped define us as a country and as a society,” said Nantz. “Those who fought were heroes and if it weren’t for Tim Gray that important era might not be preserved as it is.”
Gray’s introduction came in a most serendipitous manner, but which highlights the “golf” angle, tiny as it is. Add the ingredients together – he likes golf; he has a media background; and he vacations in April onHilton Head Island – and it led Gray to volunteer inside the press room during the annual RBC Heritage at Harbor Town Golf Links.
That is how our paths crossed, given my love of that tournament and the people who put their hearts and soul into it. Innately curious and of a soft heart for those who volunteer, my conversations with Gray led to his WWII films and it struck a chord.
Oh, for sure we could wheel out the profound quotes by George Santayana or Winston Churchill or any of a number of esteemed authors, but Tim Gray feverishly believes history is important and is crushed that young Americans are afforded so little class time studying it.
“Europeans know more about the history of World War II than our kids do,” he said.
A stark reality is this: “We’re at that cliff,” said Nantz, explaining that we soon will not have any World War II surviving veterans to tell their stories. “There are fewer and fewer of them alive and so we are fortunate to have Tim, who continues to tell these stories.”
Fueled by Gray’s wonderful talents, the films have taken us to Normandy in France, to Italy and Sen. Robert Dole’s recollections, to Iwo Jima, to Pearl Harbor, and to Guam. The films capture those who fought on land, on sea, and in the air and Gray feels blessed to have touched so many distinguished voices who wanted to narrate.
From actors and actresses such as Kevin Bacon, John Malkovich, Jeff Daniels, Jane Lynch, Gary Sinise, Dan Akryod, and Matthew Broderick; to esteemed singers such as Darius Rucker and Luke Bryan; to those from the sports world such as Nantz, Bill Belichick and Tim McCarver, Gray has assembled an all-star cast with many common qualities.
“They are more than patriots; they seem to all have a connection to the military and a huge respect for the stories,” said Gray.
Nantz, for instance, is immensely proud of his daughter Caroline’s husband, Lt. Col. Andy Delaney, a Top Gun fighter pilot currently deployed. “He’s doing hero’s work,” said the famed broadcaster of football, golf, and college basketball.
Jim Nantz said he has been so moved by Tim Gray's WWII films that he arranged for a recent world premiere in Nashville, and interviewed the producer and creative mind on stage before a packed house.
Another shining example is Belichick, the legendary football coach who might be more knowledgeable about military history than the game that brought him fame. “He knew (World War II) from his dad, who served in the Navy, but he clearly had a firm grasp of the script he read, ‘D-Day Over Normandy,’ ” said Gray.
What intrigues Nantz is Gray’s ability to continue to find story angles to give life and personality to these films that serve as timeless educational vehicles. Gray builds several movies around Bob Hope, focuses on historic troops such as “Merrill’s Marauders” and the Seabees at Iwo Jima, puts the spotlight on enemies such as Rommel, examines the gut-wrenching Holocaust, and highlights specific battlegrounds like the Waal River Crossing and the Hurtgen Forest in Europe, and Peleliu, a small island in Palau where a bloody battle took place but which is now a well-preserved battlefield.
By poring over documents and archives, Gray discovered that a veteran who lived near him in Woonsocket, R.I., piloted the fifth boat in the first wave at Normandy, serving with the 16th Regimen of the 1st Infantry Division. "The Big Red,” said Gray.
As part of a film, that veteran returned to Normandy, now a sacred sanctuary in France, to where Gray has made 22 visits.
On location in Italy, Gray found locals who were alive and could lend a voice to the “Bob Dole, Italy and World War II” film that was narrated by Nantz.
The most rewarding aspect to his work, said Gray, has been meeting so many veterans who served and lost so many of their friends. “They were such a humble generation and should be saluted as heroes, but they just don’t like to talk about themselves in that way,” he said.
Nantz speaks with deep reverence for Gray, recalling the email he got years ago asking if he’d be interested in narrating some of these films. “It was totally random,” said Nantz, who studied the request for a few moments and replied, “I’d be deeply interested.”
Nantz said the films serve a purpose, helping to preserve a piece of our country’s history that is important. With each narration, Nantz’s respect has grown deeper, so much so that he asked if he could do a world premiere of one of films in his adopted home town of Nashville earlier this year.
“It was the story of a 100-year-old World War II veteran returning to Iwo Jima,” said Nantz. There was a full house to see “A Final Landing on Iwo Jima” and the veteran was in attendance and the audience shared so much of the emotions that consumed Gray and Nantz.
“I’m touched by how ego-free he is,” said Nantz of Gray. “But he has as great a knowledge of his topic as anyone I’ve ever met.”
The most recent film is about to be finished, another Nantz narration about the bombing of the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor and the subject line is chilling. Which is: A new fast-attack submarine is being built and will be called the USS Arizona. Gray follows that subject line and explains that the few survivors who were aboard the original USS Arizona, which is still located at the bottom of Pearl Harbor, gave their blessing.
“They said, ‘Yes, carry on the legacy,’ ” said Gray.
They may as well have been speaking to Gray’s mission, too; which is to carry on a legacy with these movies.
And at vital time, said Nantz.
“Time gets faster and these things are slipping away,” said the CBS broadcaster. “No one can pause and give context to the world. But the past is vital to us.”
