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Gary Powell / Rockford IL

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  • Gary Powell / Rockford IL

    Another dedicated Studebaker enthusiast....and, doggone it, not that old! Click on Read More to see Gary's SDC connection in the expanded obituary.



    I had the privilege of knowing both Gary and his brother Ron, also a "car guy" who passed away several years ago. Truly fine fellows all around. BP
    We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

    G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

  • #2
    When I saw Rockford, IL, I thought of a collector car dealer there. I believe that the business was Unique Motors/Motorcars. Decades ago, he had a 1959/1960Lark that I was interested in. His name for the Lark was "Cutie Pie".

    I was unable to read the "expanded obituary". Is this guy related to that dealership? Just today, I read the obituary of the lady, who with her husband, owned the dealership where I last had full time employment.
    Gary L.
    Wappinger, NY

    SDC member since 1968
    Studebaker enthusiast much longer

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by studegary View Post
      When I saw Rockford, IL, I thought of a collector car dealer there. I believe that the business was Unique Motors/Motorcars. Decades ago, he had a 1959/1960Lark that I was interested in. His name for the Lark was "Cutie Pie".

      I was unable to read the "expanded obituary". Is this guy related to that dealership? Just today, I read the obituary of the lady, who with her husband, owned the dealership where I last had full time employment.
      Gary, the name of the dealership was Unique Motorcars Ltd. The co-owners early on were brothers-in-law Larry Mitchell and C. H. "Mike" Parker II. Larry married Mike's sister.

      I bought thousands (no exaggeration) of cars for them to sell from roughly 1975-1994 or thereabouts, first when they were together in a leased building and, later, when they parted ways and Mike bought a building in another part of Rockford and moved the business over there. Mike retired and sold the business circa 1992. The building was in a deteriorating neighborhood in west Rockford and has since been turned into a more profitable liquor store! Imagine that.

      Mike Parker and I remain good friends to this day and he retains his ongoing SDC membership to get Turning Wheels. He and I like to trade trivia challenges and barbs to see if we can "catch" each other on automotive minutia. Not that either of us is keeping score, but I'm sure that, over the decades, it remains tied. At my request, Mike voluntarily reads my columns before they are submitted to Hemmings Classic Car and has cited two errors [among the 18 columns to date] I was happy to correct. On the other hand, he said the December 2015 column looked fine and overlooked the fact that I had referred to the lowest-price 1958 Pontiac line as Catalina, not Chieftain! Thankfully, I caught the error myself before submitting it, but haven't let him forget that he overlooked it.

      The connection to the Powell Brothers is this: Both Gary Powell and his brother Ron were long-time collector-car enthusiasts in Rockford and dear friends of Mike Parker from high school days in Rockford. Both Gary and Ron "hung out" at Unique Motorcars. All three men were either long-time or founding members of Gentlemen's Car Club in Rockford, one of the earlier car clubs for Rockford-area teen-age car nuts in the 50s and 60s. Gary Powell and Ron Powell and Mike Parker were close friends. Because Gary was involved with Studebakers, Mike notified me when he saw that Gary has passed away earlier this week. Gary Powell (the subject obituary) was active in The Rock River Valley SDC Chapter.

      (Several years ago, Gary's brother Ron was gravely ill and known to be near passing. Mike Parker heard of it and flew from his then-retirement home in California to Indianapolis in the dead of winter, whereupon I picked him up at the Indianapolis airport and we drove the 300 miles to Rockford in miserable January midwest weather to visit Ron before he died. We had nice visit and Ron was very much "with it," but he passed away within days of our visit, so we really did get there "just in time" to see a dear mutual friend one last time.)

      Mike and former partner Larry Mitchell wrote their own advertising that appeared in Hemmings and such, and liked to give the cars they sold names. So they might have well called a 1959 / 1960 Lark "Cutie Pie." After all, they were! BP
      We've got to quit saying, "How stupid can you be?" Too many people are taking it as a challenge.

      G. K. Chesterton: This triangle of truisms, of father, mother, and child, cannot be destroyed; it can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it.

      Comment

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