Ted Turner, the media mogul and philanthropic pioneer, died yesterday at 87. I remember fondly my lunch date with the founder of CNN and Jane Fonda’s former husband.

“I personally worry about everything,” Turner told me over grilled bison salad at the recently opened Ted’s Montana Grill in Crystal City, VA on a gorgeous October afternoon in 2005. Those concerns, he explained, included steroids in meat and the threat of nuclear weapons. He jumped from subject to subject but always with a thoughtful opinion — never trivial.

The man who revolutionized the news business with the launch of CNN was then taking upscale casual dining to a new level. He hoped to have the best small restaurant chain in America. At the time, Turner’s eatery had 42 locations nationwide and was looking to expand in the DC metropolitan area. “It’s an energy zone,” he said. “The whole world likes the great American West.” As usual, this man thought big. “Europe may be next.” He then changed subjects to Gorbachev’s reforms.

Turner and restauranteur George McKerrow Jr., the only private business partner Turner ever had, shot pheasant in South Dakota on their way to D.C. — not only to check out his restaurant but also for Turner to speak at the Frank Foundation dinner at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Hall of Flags celebrating the 20th anniversary of Perestroika. Turner told McKerrow: “You take care of the bison — Turner had the largest producing herd of bison worldwide: 42,000 — and I’ll save the world.”

Turner, not a professional politician, told me he was “flattered” to share the podium with ex-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Nobel laureate Betty Williams of Galway, Ireland.

I first met Ted Turner in 1985 at the festive 75th birthday bash he hosted for 2,400 friends of Jacques Cousteau, the famed French oceanographer and ecologist, at Mount Vernon. I did a People Magazine interview with Cousteau and was invited to the party celebrating the environmentalist.

It was a festive, if muggy, afternoon. Jazz and calypso music wafted across the lush lawns of George Washington’s home. After a buffet dinner served under white tents, singer John Denver — a longtime member of the Cousteau Society — led the guests in his 1975 paean to Cousteau’s ship, “Aye, Calypso,” as well as “Happy Birthday.” The funding for the evening came from Turner himself, a reflection of his extraordinary generosity.

Cousteau downplayed the occasion. “Birthdays are entirely artificial,” he told me. “Nature doesn’t count days. Monkeys and mosquitoes don’t have birthdays.” But he grew philosophical about what drove him forward: “A ship is not meant to be at anchor — it becomes rusty. The arteries of the ship clog, just like the arteries of people who remain at anchor.” His favorite body of water, he said with a smile, was “the one I’ve never been to.”

That philosophy rings deeply true with respect to Turner as well. Soon after the party, Cousteau set sail on a five-year, $15 million odyssey sponsored by Turner that took him to New Zealand, China, the Indian Ocean and the Congo River. Turner was always moving from project to project, making him a leader in the arenas of media, sports and the environment.

He will long be remembered as a media visionary — generating international viewership for CNN, creating the Goodwill Games to promote world peace, and championing nuclear disarmament. He was often in Washington in those years in his role as co-chair of the Nuclear Threat Initiative alongside Senator Sam Nunn (D-Ga.).

Ted Turner was a larger-than-life figure whose impact on news, sports, entertainment, the environment and world peace left an indelible mark. I’m grateful I had the opportunity to meet and converse with this brilliant and unique man on several occasions.