Rest In Peace, John McMasters: A personal remembrance of a great Savannahian

I WANTED to write a personal note in memoriam to the late, great John McMasters, who passed away surrounded by family and friends last week at age 71.

My interaction with John goes back quite a long way, and is worth mentioning to get some insight into his decades of impact on his community.

We first met when I was editor-in-chief of the old Creative Loafing in Savannah, in the mid-1990s. John was working as an advertising salesman for us at the time.

This was back in the golden days of print alt-weeklies. It was still legal for tobacco companies to pay us a lot of money for cigarette ads, Savannah was in a decided growth mode after decades of near-stagnation, and people had a lot of disposable income to go to the restaurants and bars which made up the vast bulk of our ad base.

Gregarious, tall, and persuasive, John had a big presence and made a great salesman. But his heart was always elsewhere.

I became aware of John’s unique passion and drive when he began coming into my office unannounced, not only wanting to talk about local politics and issues, but insisting, almost demanding, that I spend more time and energy writing about some particular issue or policy that he felt needed addressing.

Anyone who knows John is laughing right now, and probably had a similar experience with him at some point.

At first I was understandably taken aback. In the newspaper business it’s strictly taboo for the sales side to interfere with the editorial side, or at least it certainly was back then. It’s considered a conflict of interest, and any editor worth his or her salt will really get their dander up about it.

Which I did, at first.

Then I began to realize that John wasn’t actually trying to do my job for me, nor was he being condescending to me.

Simply put, John cared that passionately about his city and his community. His drive to improve the world around him was almost literally uncontrollable.

John left and I stayed at that paper, which eventually became Connect Savannah. In the meantime, John ran for Chatham County Commission, and won.

His one term on that local body was typical John: He didn’t care that he upset the apple cart sometimes, he didn’t care that he might be on the losing side of a vote as long as he stood on principle, and he was utterly, totally incorruptible.

Needless to say, all that made him stick out like a sore thumb in the nest of snakes that is local politics.

While John at that time identified mostly as a Republican, it’s safe to say that his concerns had very little, almost nothing, to do with partisan politics.

As a fiscally conservative and socially liberal Californian by upbringing, John was neither a MAGA-type culture warrior nor a George W. Bush “you’re either with us or you’re against us” neoconservative warmonger.

If anything, he was adamantly opposed to culture war politics, and definitely opposed to insane, wasteful, and stupid wars on the other side of the world.

John focused his prodigious energies in a very hyperlocal fashion. In fact, I can say that I learned directly from him that hyperlocal is the best way to really make a difference.

He always led and taught by example in that way. I’m not sure he ever realized how influential his approach really was.

In more recent years John and I became good friends again during his venture Better Savannah, with Chuck Feagain.

John and Chuck were on the local cutting edge of what’s now called “independent media.” I was a frequent guest on their insightful, no-holds-barred – and entertaining! – Better Savannah podcast, and both of them were always gracious hosts.

I will always have a debt of gratitude to John for being so supportive and encouraging when I left Connect Savannah in 2020 to help form The Savannahian.

John was not a jealous or insecure man, and he never minded sharing the spotlight with other like-minded people. That’s another lesson he taught a lot of folks.

John’s Fox & Weeks obituary is worth a read, because it notably doesn’t talk much about his political efforts. It mostly focuses, as it should, on his family and life.

It shows that for all his bluster about politics, in the end what was important to him was his loyalty and devotion to those he loved.

He remained good friends with his ex-wife Monica, who always continued to speak highly of him.

I talk every now and then with their son Taylor McMasters, who is a chip off the old block in some ways, but also very much his own man in others. Taylor is a testament to John’s love of life and buoyant spirit.

People like John are hard to find now. Not many folks are willing to be happy warriors, to fight the good fight even though they know they are likely to lose at least half the time.

John always enjoyed the fight, but also always remembered why he was fighting. It was never about him, but always about other people, and about the greater good.

Rest in Power, John. May you always catch the perfect wave.

When we meet again on the other side, you have an open invitation to walk into my office anytime.