The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. JournalIssue 241 Electronic Edition September-October 2009 Election Results Announced Davis to Head Society Susan S. Davis, of Portland, Maine, has been elected president of the Society of Automotive Historians, it was announced by Leroy Cole, chair of the www.autohistory.org Nominations Committee. Also elected were J. Douglas Leighton, of London, Ontario, Canada, Vice President; Robert R. Ebert of North Ridgeville, Ohio, Secretary; and Patrick Bisson of Flushing, Michigan, Treasurer. All will serve two-year terms. Elected as directors for three-year terms were Thomas Jakups of West Hartford, Connecticut, and Leslie Kendall of Los Angeles, California. Incumbent Inside director Steve Wilson of Jefferson, North Carolina, was re-elected. Named to the director position being vacated by Pat Bisson was John Heitmann of Dayton, SAH News 1 Ohio. All newly-elected offi cials will take their seats at the end of the annual meeting at Hershey on October 9th. A native of Maine, Susan Davis is currently executive director of the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Co. and Museum in Portland. From 1986 to Letters 4 2006 she was the founding director, president and chief executive offi cer of the Stanley Museum of Kingfi eld, Maine. She brings to SAH a wealth of experience in leading preservation organizations and sustaining associations and non-profi t institutions. The UK Model T vs Morris 5 Keith Marvin (1924-2009) Keith Marvin, SAH member #0007HF, died Monday, June 22, 2009, in SAHB to Science Museum Larkspur, California, after a brief illness. He would have turned 85 on July 1st. 6 A founding member of the Society, he served as president in 1986 and 1987. He received the Society’s Carl Benz Award for the article “The American Chauffeur: A Sociologic Appraisal” in 1985. In 1988 he was named a Friend of Automotive History by the Society, in recognition of his lifetime devotion to the fi eld. In Survivor Car Event 7 his presentation speech, award chair David Lewis described Keith as a “man of letters,” for he corresponded avidly with all who wrote to him, on any subject. Indeed, over the course of a 25-year friendship, he exchanged more than 1,000 letters with British historian Michael Sedgwick, a correspondence that ended Book Reviews 8 only because Sedgwick died in 1983. The two had never met. In The Shadow of Detroit A champion of the obscure makes of American cars of the 1920s, he researched and wrote about them avidly. His work comprises in many cases Sleeping Beauties 9 the only written record of a forgotten period when an aspiring automaker could come into town, sell some stock, rent a factory, display a hastily-built car and then vanish within weeks. Nearly all such entries in Nick Georgano’s encyclopedias bear Keith’s byline, and those in Bev Kimes’ mammoth Standard Editorial 10 Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 are based largely on his research. Born July 1, 1924 in Troy, New York, Keith graduated from the Hoosac School in Hoosick, New York, in 1943 and entered the U.S. Army, serving in Anti-Aircraft Artillery. He began his freelance writing career in 1945, and served as a reporter and music critic for the Record newspapers in Troy from 1948- 1975. In 1950, with the late John English, a fellow automobile enthusiast, he continued page 2 Sept - Oct 2009 -Keith Marvin from page 1 time had an extensive collection. In his founded the Automobilists of the Upper later years he downsized his holdings, Hudson Valley, an independent club in but maintained a “wall of plates” the Albany-Troy area. Marvin instigated comprising his favorites in the library of a club magazine, the Upper Hudson his apartment. His self-published book Valley Automobilist, which he edited, License Plates of the World was a fi rst except for a few brief sabbaticals, until on that topic, in 1963. its demise in 1993. The Automobilist In addition to SAH, AUHV and became Keith’s showcase for the ALPCA, he was a member of the Classic obscure, chronicling such oddities Car Club of America, the Rolls-Royce as the Texmobile, the Masterbilt Six Owners Club, Veteran Motor Car Club and the Harrigan. Although a local Collector. In all, he authored some of America, from which he received the publication, the Automobilist attracted 3,000 articles on automotive history, Byron C. Hull Award for Automotive a number of internationally-known including feature articles, news History in 1962, the Horseless Carriage writers, such as Nick Georgano, items, obituaries, and book reviews, Foundation, Europlate, Voitures Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, Mike for more than 70 publications. In Anciennes du Québec, and the Willys- Worthington-Williams and Michael addition, he wrote or co-wrote seven Overland-Knight Register. He was also Sedgwick, largely on the strength of books. an honorary member of The Stutz Club Keith’s friendship. He received AUHV’s Another of his passions and 2003 recipient of the Peter Helck Frank Lescault Cup for Meritorious involved license plates. In 1963, he Memorial Trophy, as well as of the Service in 1956. instituted the fi rst registration system Antique Automobile Club of America, His byline appeared regularly for automobiles on the Netherlands from which he received several awards in SAH Journal and Automotive History Antilles island of Saba, devising for research and writing. Review, often in conjunction with his the system, designing the plates, I became acquainted with favorite obscure makes, and frequently and furnishing them to the island Keith the way most people did: I wrote on book reviews. He read voraciously, government. A long-time member to him about one of his articles. He and reviewed the newest automotive of the Automobile License Plate replied the same day, answering all books for a number of publications, Collectors Association, he wrote often my questions and mentioned that his including Old Cars Weekly and Car on the subject of plates and at one mother-in-law had lived in a town JournalThe Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Issue 241 Sept - Oct 2009 Offi cers Publications Committee SAH Journal (ISSN 1057–1973) Susan S. Davis President Thomas S. Jakups, Chair is published six times a year by the J. Douglas Leighton Vice President Christopher G. Foster Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Robert R. Ebert Secretary Michael Lamm Patrick D. Bisson Treasurer Taylor Vinson Subscription is by membership Allan Meyer in the Society. Board of Directors Through October 2010 Past Editors Membership dues are $40 per year. Paul N. Lashbrook Stanton A. Lyman Richard B. Brigham Send dues, membership inquiries Judith E. Endelman Issues 1–29 Sept. 1969–(undated) 1973 and changes of address to Through October 2011 G. Marshall Naul Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. John A. Marino John Heitmann 30–50 July 1973–Dec. 1976 178 Crescent Road David M. Woodhouse John Peckham Fairport, NY 14450 USA Darwyn H. Lumley, ex-offi cio 51–59 Feb. 1977–July 1978 Through October 2012 ©2009 Steve Wilson Leslie Kendall Walter Gosden The Society of Automotive Historians, Inc. Thomas Jakups 60–87 Nov. 1978–Dec. 1983 Richard B. Brigham Find the Society of Automotive Historians SAH Journal 88–117 Jan./Feb. 1983–Nov./Dec. 1988 on the web at www.autohistory.org. Allan G. Y. Meyer, Editor, Adv. Mgr. Christopher G. Foster P.O. Box 1948 118–157 Jan./Feb. 1989–July/Aug. 1995 Vashon, WA 98070-1948 USA 206-304-3872 Samuel V. Fiorani [email protected] 158–194 Sept./Oct. 1995–Sept./Oct. 2001 Copy Deadline for Journal 242 [email protected] Thomas S. Jakups November 1, 2009 195–236 Nov./Dec. 2001–Sept./Oct. 2008 2 SAH Journal No. 241 Electronic Edition SAH News Richmond, California, and a daughter, adjacent to that where I had grown India Dobson, also of Richmond. up. Our ongoing correspondence He is also survived by two stepsons, revealed that our lives were so Peyton Anness of Miami, Florida, and intertwined that our friendship was Frederick Anness of Jupiter, Florida, almost preordained. His prep school and his former wife, Beverley Lavin roommate was our local pharmacist, and world affairs, politics and religion. of Vero Beach, Florida. His fi rst wife, and in fact our parents had known one He had a keen interest in music, and Dorothy Knippel Marvin, predeceased another some years before. His mother an encyclopedic memory of royalty him in 1961. A memorial service is had written an article for the small and failed political candidates. It is planned by the family at a later date. horticultural magazine that my parents almost trite to say that someone was —Kit Foster published. And he became a mentor “larger than life,” but Keith probably and champion of my own automotive saw himself that way. He liked to be history curiosity, publishing a number noticed, whether it was wearing his of my early articles in the Automobilist. signature beret or gray safari suit, When he moved from the Albany holding forth in a gathering of people, area to Worcester, Massachusetts, in or simply having his byline in print. 1997, and began to lose touch with That contributed to his prolifi c output, his hometown friends, I began a long much of which was pro bono, but tradition of lunching with him at the it was not his sole motivation. Many pub that had been my campus watering of us are willing to answer questions hole during my undergraduate days when asked. All too often the rest of at Worcester Tech. After he moved to us leave those questions unasked until California to be with his children, I it’s too late.