DGF

Perhaps More Than You Wanted To Know


Most of the material shown on the website comes from my experience as a spectator. I haven't owned dozens of cars in my life. Of those I have owned, some were interesting and others were just transportation. I've done maintenance, pulled and installed a couple of engines (in my youth and with help from friends), and generally tried to keep my own cars away from repair shops, as my abilities allowed. But the majority of my experience with automobiles has come from looking, talking, listening, and reading.

I bought my first Hot Rod Magazine in the weeks before my eleventh birthday. It was the November 1957 issue featuring the Scotty's Muffler Special - Ardun motor, eight chromed exhaust pipes, and a white T body. My interest grew in the era of the R&C Dream Truck, Doane Spencer's Thunderbird, Go-Karts, model cars, the XR6, McMullin's '32 roadster (when it ran a 427 Ford), the advent of muscle cars, Mustangs, and writers like Spence Murray, Lynn Wineland, and Tex Smith. In addition to Hot Rod, R&C, and other titles with similar content, particularly through most of the 1960s and into the 1970s, I would pick up the occasional sporty car magazine, especially those with articles on Enzo's latest delivery to Bill Harrah or British players from Jaguar and Aston Martin. And, along with Corvettes and GT40s, there were the Cobras, Mangustas, Panteras, and other "hybrids" of the day to read about. I'm still a subscriber to a variety of automotive titles.

My professional career was in the rather broadly defined area of industrial/organizational psychology. Based on computer skills acquired in pursuit of a mathematics degree at the University of Utah, I went to work for the Institute for Behavioral Research in Creativity on July 5, 1967, prior to my senior year. I know it seems strange to most folks these days, but I worked there until I was the last man standing in 2012. IBRIC led me to advanced degrees and interesting work, much of it in the area of talent identification. We helped a variety of Federal organizations, (e.g., the Army Corps of Engineers, and the departments of Labor, Treasury, and Health and Human Services) on organizational development issues. (Hey, I've interviewed a general deep in the Pentagon; it was after lunch and we each enjoyed a postprandial cigar as we talked.) IBRIC also worked with school systems to develop testing materials and program assessment. If you're curious, check out www.ibric.net; the site should still be around for a while after this one goes on line.

Sometime in the 1980s I decided to hone my photographic skills a bit and see if I could get one of the magazines to buy some freelance work. My good friend John Kennedy (no relation) had a collection of eight or nine beautiful stock Corvettes; I shot some of them and wrote up the story. Most magazines that catered to the Corvette crowd in those days primarily dealt with modified cars. I wrote John Dianna hoping to convince him that restored Corvettes actually were more in vogue and deserved coverage. The article was published in one of Petersen's special issues.

I got to know Tex Smith a bit. I met him at a car show in Salt Lake City and later on visited him (and Ron Ceredono) a couple of times up in beautiful downtown Driggs. Tex encouraged me to write some stuff; I guess he needed material. Anyway, I wrote an essay and a couple of feature articles for HRMx, plus a pair of articles for his Hot Rod Chassis how-to book. I also had a few pieces published in Street Rodder and Mark Morton's reimagined Hop Up. Once I even had a nice cover and feature on a gorgeous '57 Corvette with a magazine called Classic Chevy World that catered to the tri-five set. Needless to say, these endeavors did not lead to a new career as an automotive journalist.

So, here I am, more or less retired from research but somehow with less time than before. Why not publish a website? Show some of the old stuff and maybe, here and there, material that is new.

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