In Memory of Jack Sessums... July 19, 1940 TO December 15, 2004
Please read this before you continue on to
Airwolf
If there is anyone who
new Jack, and would like to contribute something about Jack to this site, I want
to here from you. You can email me at
dave@rcstuff.ca
Written by David Laux, author of this site, January 10, 2005
I am not much for words, and I told Jack that many times by email,
while he sent me all the fantastic information and pictures that make up this
site on Airwolf. During this time, he wanted me to
phone him and talk to him in person. I never did and I regretted it.
Now more than ever do I regret that decision after I found out that Jack passed
away. Around the middle of December a friend of Jacks, David Humpert,
contacted me by email and told me that Jack had passed away. I told him I
would like to do something in memory of Jack and add it to this website in
memory of him. He sent me a link to an article, which I made a copy of
because I thought it may be lost some day if I didn't and I hope the author
isn't upset with me for doing this.... Redlands Daily
Facts (CA) December 19, 2004
David Humpert also had this to add.... "All that I can briefly
add is that the years that I worked for him and knew him as a friend were the
most interesting and stimulating of my life. He taught me how to do things
that I never dreamed I would be capable of doing. In my opinion, he was an
engineering genius and one of the most creative people I have ever known, much
less worked for. We all loved him and will miss him. You would have
liked him too."
Thanks David Humpert. Now more than every do I wish I would have
had enough guts to take the time and talk to him on the phone, or even have
taken the time to go meet him in person. I will never get the chance now
and I will regret that for the rest of my life. After David H. contacted
me I heard from another person that knew Jack. Here is what he had to
say...
"My name is Scott Edmondson. Well, I know he was in charge of all the
miniature work on Knight Rider. Some great examples can be seen
throughout the series if you look for them. In one episode you can see
KITT jumping over 2 old cars racing down the road... that was Jacks work,
and he basically constructed a small road and catapulted the car over the
model cars. In another episode KITT faces off against a combine in a
field. The model combine's front blades were cut up lithography
plates, so they would break up when they hit the model's hood. and the
spinning wheel on the combine was
being controlled just off camera by Jack using a drill. The model I
have, (pics enclosed which you are free to use) I believe was used in an
episode where KITT flew off of a mountain cliff and deploys a parachute.
They dropped a model from a helicopter and filmed it as it floated to earth,
and in several instances it got caught in some trees. The reason I
think my car may be that one is because it has holes in the rocker panels
and you can see scuff marks on the body in about the right place where the
wires to the parachute would have been. When I mentioned this to Jack
he simply replied "could be". There was a car that was motorized and
remote controlled, and I believe Jack said that is in Vegas at Planet
Hollywood or it might be the one with a functional scanner. There is
another one at the Volo Museum just north of Chicago and of course, there is
mine and one that is in the hands of a fellow Knight Rider fan. So to
the best of my knowledge, that's all the KITT
models that have survived. There is also a model of the FLAG semi that Jack
sold to someone about 5 years ago. He said that he used one of the
Airwolf models in one of the episodes of Knight Rider, but I don't recall if
he knew which one. Jack still had a lot of stuff from Knight Rider,
and I would assume Airwolf laying around. It took nearly a year to
convince him to sell me one of his KITT cars. He wanted to be certain
I was not just going to throw it up on eBay and make a big profit from it.
As you will see in the pics, that isn't going to happen. I've included
some pics of the car by itself, a pic I took of me holding the model in
front of the full size converted Trans Am I own, which I sent to Jack, and a
pic I asked to be taken of Jack holding my car in his workshop before he
shipped it to me. (I was afraid this was going to happen, and I wanted a pic
of him to put along with the COA). I spoke to him on the phone many
times, and he was an extremely open and friendly man, and quite willing to
discuss what he'd done and he was very generous to me in selling me that
car. He was quite curious about the fan base for Knight Rider. Jack had models of just about anything, and if you look in that pic of him holding my car, you'll see he was starting to work on a KITT with
a scanner and interior for himself. I don't know if he ever got it
finished. I sent him pics of my interior for him to use as a pattern,
but sadly, I had not talked to him in several months..."
Thanks Scott.
Following are the pictures Scott attached in his email to me.
To continue into the Airwolf Site
Memories:
Redlands Daily Facts (CA) December 19, 2004
The Joshua
Tree and Southern Railroad GSD
Hits
Send mail to dave@rcstuff.ca
with questions or comments about this web site. Last modified:
April 12, 2006