ATLANTA — Everyday people are sharing their stories of Ted Turner after the media mogul and philanthropist died on Wednesday.
Ted Turner’s empire spanned from CNN and Turner Broadcasting to global peace initiatives, but also a restaurant that specializes in bison burgers.
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Channel 2’s Richard Elliot stopped by Ted’s Montana Grill on Luckie Street. The restaurant saw a steady flow of customers, both regulars and tourists, on Thursday.
What many didn’t know is that Turner lived on the top floor of the same building. But Matt Cianciolo knew. He’s one of the managers who saw Turner all the time.
“I tried calling him Mr. Turner the first time I met him and everybody knows how that goes. He says, ‘Don’t call me Mr. Turner. That’s my dad. Call me Ted.’”
Cianciolo told Elliot that Ted would hold his quarterly meetings there, but would always stop and spend time with the customers, much to their surprise.
“Honestly, if you didn’t recognize him, you would think he would just be bugging random people ... He would love the interaction from table to table. He would go and walk around, ask people how their meal was,” Cianciolo said.
This from the man who built a vast media empire and owned big league franchises, including the Atlanta Braves.
Former Braves President and current Los Angeles Dodgers owner Stan Kasten says that’s just the way Turner operated. He considered Ted a mentor.
“Ted had a way of doing things that would just work out because he was far ahead of everyone else,” he said.
Cianciolo thought of Turner as a mentor, too.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I regret that decision at all and to have a mentor and an example like him was just really motivating,” he said.
That legacy and example will live on in Atlanta for a long time.
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