Vinnie Mendes lived a life that wasn’t ‘made up’

Vinnie Mendes lived life to the fullest in his 83 years. Anyone who has read his monthly columns in Lakeside News over the past several years was fortunate to follow along as he recounted sailing stories, tales of life growing up in coastal New Jersey and all sorts of “You can’t make this stuff up” yarns about life on and off Lake Lanier. That was the tagline he came up with for his column.

Vinnie had a lot more living to do, but that life was cut short on September 19, the result of complications from heart surgery.

Hollis, Vinnie’s wife of 31 years, reflected recently about her life with Vinnie.

“In 1985 I went with my neighbor to a party on a tugboat that had been repurposed as a fun floating party craft by Vin and his brother and friends,” she said. “We boarded at the family’s marina and cruised up and down the Shrewsbury River with Springsteen, a local guy just starting out, blasting on speakers borrowed from Vinnie’s family’s restaurant, The Cove.

“It was love at first boat ride,” she continued. “Vin and I were on the top deck, above the fray as he pointed out highlights of his hometown on both sides of the river accompanied by anecdotes and family history.

“He was ‘a lot’ as they say – Always the instigator of wild adventures. Parasailing from the beach at Sandy Hook, serious offshore sailboat racing, and when the river froze, we cross country skied on it.”

The couple married in 1994 and headed south to Georgia. They discovered that the North Georgia mountains are perfect for cruising around on motorcycles and for scenic driving with the MG clubs; they both owned classic MGs.

They moved to Flowery Branch just in time to volunteer for the sailing events in Savannah for the 1996 Summer Games. Lake Lanier became home base for the couple.

“We were put on the Mistral windsurfers course and our job was to manage the gear boat. All the sailors would paddle out with their backpacks, tossing them to us and we’d keep them on board during the races. I was stunned when on the actual race day they all had ten pounds of ice in their packs. Hard to catch on a rocking boat! It was an amazing experience and we got to know so many young sailors from around the world.”

Back in the early ’60s, Mendes served in the US Navy, for a time stationed in Roda, Spain, specializing in nuclear ordinance disposal. Then he went to college, majoring in chemical engineering. Most of his career was spent in sales and raising his two children.

After retiring he kept active. “One of his favorite gigs was working with Ricki Lee Hagen on corporate team-building events,” she said. “The idea was to stage a pirate attack on the lake, with Vinnie as a charter captain for Ricki Lee’s beautiful wooden sailing vessel, Grendel. He and a pirate crew would sail up to the houseboat where Ricki Lee was teaching and start swashbuckling to kidnap the participants.

“It was right up his alley. He even sewed his own costumes to keep it authentic,” she said. “Whenever there was an opportunity to combine boating and fun, Vinnie was there in the thick of things.

“Vinnie loved and cherished his friendships at Lake Lanier and he always had time for people to share stories or just chat,” Hollis said. “You know, he made friends wherever he went and he kept in touch with them for years.”

Car Photo: by Dr. Vinnie Mendes II

 

Memories of my friend Vinnie

By Bob Neyman

Vinnie Mendes and I go way back to our college days, when we were assigned as dorm mates in Hartford Hall at the University of Maryland. We were much like Mutt and Jeff – being 22, he had just completed a tour with the US Navy and after spending 4 years in Europe he was far more worldly than I, being relatively immature for a 19-year-old.

He was a brilliant jokester who could get away with cramming for an exam the night before, while I was the more serious student with a somewhat limited sense of humor. To his strapping 6’3” “chick-magnet” guy, I was the 5’5” nerdy bookworm.

Despite our differences we became the best of friends. Back in the day women weren’t allowed in men’s dorms so the next year Vinnie moved to an apartment off campus. Even then, we kept in close touch.

Vinnie had a catamaran docked nearby in the Chesapeake Bay, so we’d drive up in his souped-up supercharged Volkswagen on warm weekends. He also brought a 1960 BMW motorcycle back from Germany that remains in his garage today.

We had many crazy escapades during those college years. Fortunately the statute of limitations has long expired.

After graduation we went our separate ways: Vinnie returned home to New Jersey and began a career with a manufacturing company using his chemical engineering degree and I eventually moved to Georgia and opened an optometry practice here in Buford.

One day about 5 years ago – like 54 years after our graduation – I got curious and Googled him, and there was a Vincent Mendes located in Flowery Branch. I was living in Oakwood at the time, so I reached out to that Vincent Mendes.

Unbelievably he was my old roommate Vinnie and was living really close to me.

Some things never change. Immediately we truly became best friends again, meeting weekly for lunch, helping each other with projects, and sharing feelings and ideas.

I feel like a part of me went with his passing and think of him nearly every day. Friends like Vinnie don’t come into your life every day. I am really thankful for those college days and that we were able to reconnect just like it was yesterday.

Motorcycle Photo: by Hollis Mendes

Feature photo (Vinnie’s Labor of Love): by Bob Neyman