The Rotary Auto Story

Our Program on August 18th was presented by our own Darel Leipold. He spoke on the beginnings of the automobile business in the early 1900s. Darel played the role of a newspaper reporter outside the Detroit Rotary Club meeting, and told of the pioneers of the auto business as they came to attend the meeting. A real name-dropping event, all of the pioneers were mentioned. It was awesome to watch Darel in his presentation. No notes. Facts and personal data about the men and about the industry in a constant progression. I found myself fascinated to the point where I took no notes. Probably the best presentation Darel has done!!! From memory, some notes. the Dodge Brothers built the chassis for the early Ford cars before the started to make their own car. Ford hit almost every letter in the alphabet in naming his series of models, but the two that we all remember are the Model T and the Model A. Tracing the corporate shenanigans of Henry Ford in the early days was interesting, but so were the financial moves of Will Durant. General Motors was a holding company that merged the five brands into one company: Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac. I gained the impression that it was not the quality of the car design that counted, but rather the ability to make a deal with the other companies that resulted in survival. (Story by Tad Shaw)