A Tribute to Lonnie Scruggs

We were saddened to hear the news that our dear friend had passed away. We have spent many inspiring hours with Lonnie at seminars, conventions, and late-night dinners over the years. He will be missed by many thousands of people across the country.

Lonnie’s willingness to share his vast knowledge, experience, and wisdom has forever changed the lives of tens of thousands of people across the country for the better. And his ideas will continue to improve the lives of others because they are forever timeless.

When we first heard the news, we could picture that happy, smiling look Lonnie always displayed when confronted with a great idea or a new adventure. We recalled a vibrant memory of that look from some years ago.

At that time, JP and Terry were sharing one of many adventures with Lonnie and his wife and soul-mate Joanne (Lonnie always called her his “squirrel-dog”). We met up on Sanibel Island, mostly because Joanne had always wanted to go there to add to her collection of sea shells. It worked for us.

For several days, we enjoyed beach combing, swapping tales, telling jokes, reliving war stories (Lonnie was a WWII vet and Terry is a Viet Nam War vet), going out for great dinners and sharing the lessons learned while passing through this incredible experience called “life.”

What marvelous stories and lessons we were privileged to hear. We will never forget those wonderful days.

But we began to run out of things to do on that tiny island. Joanne had collected at least four or five baskets of shells and Lonnie was wondering how she was going to get them home.

Terry had an idea–he had always wanted to see the Mel Fisher Spanish Gold Treasure Museum located in Key West. The weather was great and Key West was only a few hundred miles from Sanibel Island. Lonnie heard the idea, turned to us and gave us the “look.” “Let’s charter a plane,” he said. We can be there by dinner time!”

And so we did. Within an hour and a half we arrived in Key West. We followed Lonnie, leading Joanne by the hand, and headed for the center of town.

The museum was fantastic. The town was jumping and full of people, all doing the “Duval-Crawl” and we happily joined in. We ate, we danced, we sang and had a wonderful time. By the time we finally returned to Sanibel Island, it was early the next morning. What a great adventure!

When it was time for us all to head home, suddenly Lonnie gave us the “look.” “What do you say about going to China?” he asked. We looked at each other and said, “We’re in!”

We were ready to follow this man anywhere. You see, Lonnie Scruggs really knew how to live life.

Sadly, we were never able to make that trip. But when we remember those fun times, we remember the biggest lesson Lonnie taught us: Life is an adventure and you should live every minute of it to the fullest.

We’re sure that when Lonnie had those last few seconds to look back on it all, he finished by looking ahead and saying to himself, “Here we go, another adventure!”

You are a great man and a good friend and we will miss you Lonnie. Until we meet again…for the greatest adventure of them all….

Love, Terry and JP

If you did not have the opportunity to meet Lonnie, I highly recommend you read all of his books. His principles on money are timeless and you will learn an awful lot!

Jim