[V] This just in from Dick Quinn: Carl B. Thompson passed away in South Bend December 8, 2007. Carl was one of the more visible and better-known of Studebaker's last employees in the South Bend area. He was 98 years old. Dick describes Carl as "one of the finest gentlemen you'd ever ask to meet," and I'd agree.
Carl was employed by Studebaker in South Bend from November 28, 1933 through July 1, 1972. Carl spent most of his time at Studebaker in corporate publications. Carl reported having the dubious honor of being the one to turn off the lights on that last day, when Studebaker's original SASCO Parts & Service Division formally closed.
I had met and talked with Carl numerous times over the years. In January 1986, I was privileged to have been invited to his South Bend home to conduct a lengthy interview that appeared in the March 1986 Turning Wheels, an issue dedicated to memories of Studebaker's Hamilton closing 20 years earlier.
We didn't print in Turning Wheels the most startling thing Carl told me during that interview, in my opinion, so I'll relate it here. It reflects the realities that surrounded South Bend's most prominent employer in the 1950s:
Carl and his wife wanted to buy a new home in South Bend, in 1957. Carl told me the local mortgage lender (either a Bank or Savings & Loan, I forget which) would not loan Carl and his wife the money for the home on his credit-worthiness as a white-collar Studebaker employee with well over 20 years' service! But the lender would make the loan based on the credit-worthiness of his wife's job as a South Bend Community Corporation school teacher!
What more stark indicator of Studebaker's precarious financial condition during the 1953-1958 era could you ask for? And I couldn't help but wonder: Just where did the lender think the money was coming from to pay school teachers, if not from taxes collected as a result of prosperous local industry? [?]
Dick Quinn was able to "spring" Carl from his retirement home in South Bend this past June [2007], and the two of them could be seen cruising the show field in a canopied golf cart at The 2007 SDC/ASC International Meet. (It was not ascertained whether the cart was for Dick's or Carl's benefit.
)
Dick stopped near where I was judging and called me over to their cart, where I was glad to see Carl, shake his hand, and say "hello" for what would prove to be the last of many times. His mind was still quite sharp. We should all be so fortunate to have attended the SDC/ASC International Meet immediately preceding our passing!
RIP Carl B. Thompson: May 17, 1909 - December 8, 2007. [V]
BP
Carl was employed by Studebaker in South Bend from November 28, 1933 through July 1, 1972. Carl spent most of his time at Studebaker in corporate publications. Carl reported having the dubious honor of being the one to turn off the lights on that last day, when Studebaker's original SASCO Parts & Service Division formally closed.
I had met and talked with Carl numerous times over the years. In January 1986, I was privileged to have been invited to his South Bend home to conduct a lengthy interview that appeared in the March 1986 Turning Wheels, an issue dedicated to memories of Studebaker's Hamilton closing 20 years earlier.
We didn't print in Turning Wheels the most startling thing Carl told me during that interview, in my opinion, so I'll relate it here. It reflects the realities that surrounded South Bend's most prominent employer in the 1950s:
Carl and his wife wanted to buy a new home in South Bend, in 1957. Carl told me the local mortgage lender (either a Bank or Savings & Loan, I forget which) would not loan Carl and his wife the money for the home on his credit-worthiness as a white-collar Studebaker employee with well over 20 years' service! But the lender would make the loan based on the credit-worthiness of his wife's job as a South Bend Community Corporation school teacher!
What more stark indicator of Studebaker's precarious financial condition during the 1953-1958 era could you ask for? And I couldn't help but wonder: Just where did the lender think the money was coming from to pay school teachers, if not from taxes collected as a result of prosperous local industry? [?]
Dick Quinn was able to "spring" Carl from his retirement home in South Bend this past June [2007], and the two of them could be seen cruising the show field in a canopied golf cart at The 2007 SDC/ASC International Meet. (It was not ascertained whether the cart was for Dick's or Carl's benefit.
) Dick stopped near where I was judging and called me over to their cart, where I was glad to see Carl, shake his hand, and say "hello" for what would prove to be the last of many times. His mind was still quite sharp. We should all be so fortunate to have attended the SDC/ASC International Meet immediately preceding our passing!
RIP Carl B. Thompson: May 17, 1909 - December 8, 2007. [V]
BP 
We've got to quit saying, 
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