Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / The Living Legacy of William S. Jackson & the Society of Automotive Historians

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The Living Legacy of William S. Jackson & the Society of Automotive Historians · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Break Fix Podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
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over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder how did they
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get that job or become that person.
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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Like most of us, William S. Jackson became involved with automobiles at an early age.
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During the early 1950s, he was a member of Penn State University's hot rod
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club, and in the mid 1950s, he began racing in SECA events with a Jaguar
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one 20 M and later some Morgans.
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After his military service, he completed his degree at Penn State and began
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a lifelong career in journalism.
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His editorship of major vintage car clubs, magazines during the 1960s
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and seventies gives bill credit as one of the founders who launched the
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then fledgling old car hobby, turning it into the vibrant community and
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economic powerhouse that it is today.
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Bill is a charter member of the Society of Automotive Historians,
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founded in October of 1969 and during the annual SAH Awards banquet in
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2023 held in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
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Bill presented his autobiography to the banquet audience, including his
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recollections of the early days of the SAH, and the following recording was made
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by Bill from that same script in 2024.
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When I was approached by SAH past President Bob Barr and friend, and
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SAH, board member Dean Nelson, to be the speaker at our annual awards
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center in October, 2023, we ended up having a conference phone call and
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discussed what I might talk about.
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We quickly discarded the idea of a serious automotive history topic, but
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rather address my history with the SAH.
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As it appears, I am the last one living of those who are in attendance
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at that October 11th, 1969 gathering in my office in the then small
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national headquarters of the Antique Automobile Club of America, from
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which I produced the bimonthly edition of antique automobile for the club.
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For historical accuracy.
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The photograph taken on that occasion was taken with all those attending outside the
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front doors, which led to both the Hershey Museum and the A A CA headquarters.
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It was located at the western end of the old Hershey Arena, an ice hockey
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arena that then the home of the Hershey Bears American Hockey League team.
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How did the founding group get there?
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In the spring of 1969, friends and fellow automotive historians, g Marshall Nall of
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Newark, Delaware, and Richard b Brigham of Marietta, Georgia, had corresponded
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regularly on various automotive history subjects and commented on the need for
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a national organization, which would bring together and expand, as well as
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give some organization to the field.
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As a result, they decided to mail a questionnaire addressing
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the subject to about 75 of their acquaintances with similar interests.
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The results were very positive and even included the suggested name,
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the Society of Automotive Historians.
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My own response was printed in that first reorganization newsletter, number
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one, in which I ventured quote, I think this is an idea, long overdue.
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We are still in the first generation of the automobile in this country.
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Yet if we do not glean this history within, at most the next 10 years,
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it will be in some part lost forever.
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In that letter, I also offered my office at Antique Automobile Magazine
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as a possible location for a first meeting to organize the society.
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This during the Antique Automobile Club of America's Eastern National Fall meet
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in Hershey, the second weekend in October, a letter from Marshall Nall followed
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first noting I was pleased to receive your letter of the application with
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check for membership in this society.
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Was the first received.
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He then went on to say they were accepting my invitation and the initial
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meeting of the society was set for 10:00 AM Saturday, October 11th, 1969.
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The meeting was held and resulted in the photograph being taken outside
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the entrance to the Hershey Museum.
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Of all those, attending the inaugural event past President Bob Maher has
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asked me to report what I know of each.
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I'm going to go from right to left as I know more about
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those on the left of the photo.
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First, Glenn r Bachelor, a student of automotive history, and one of those
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working on what we simply called the list as we tried to identify all of the early
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automobile manufacturers in America.
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Richard b Brigham with his wife Grace r Brigham, truly one of
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the co-founders of the Society.
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Guy p Sealey Jr.
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And Charles W. Bishop.
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Two more of the early researchers on the American auto industry.
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G. Marshall Nall, the other co-founder of the Society, Herman l Smith
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from Canada, and a researcher on American cars manufactured in Canada.
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Bruce Baldwin, MOS of Madison, Wisconsin, who attended but never joined the society.
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Bruce was the builder of the MOS safari car, but also the mo's ostentatious sedan.
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He was there at my invitation showing an early race car at the A-A-C-A-B.
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Next John m Peckham automotive artist and graphic artist who designed some
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of the early SAH membership brochures.
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John paintings, one of a Mack truck, char Blank was included in John
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Monte's history of Mack Truck and paintings of a cord model eight 10
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sedan and a Model j Dusenberg Boattail Roadster, which was never built.
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Gordon B's design appear in our book Rolling Sculpture.
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Then Henry Austin Clark Jr. Creator of the Long Island Automotive Museum in
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Sandy Hollow, New York, and builder of one of the largest and most inclusive
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automotive libraries and early literature collections in the country, two
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semi-truck loads when he went to the Henry Ford Museum following his death.
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I could regale you with OTE Clark stories for the entire evening,
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but I'll tell you just two.
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When OTE built the Long Island Automotive Museum, he immediately
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applied for fire insurance only to be told by several insurance companies.
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His museum was too distant from any fire company protection to qualify
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for coverage not to be deterred.
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He applied for and received a state charter for the Sandy Hollow Fire Company.
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Having a red model T Ford Coop chief's car, an early American France ladder
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truck, and an early motorized pumper.
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He was immediately in inundated with calls and catalogs from companies
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wishing to sell him equipment, et cetera.
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He got his fire insurance and ordered one chief's badge and 50 captain's badges.
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He then received a call from the badge company stating that, aside
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from the city of New York and the city of Los Angeles, it was the
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largest order for captain's badges.
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And where was Sandy Hollow, New York wife.
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Rosemary and I are captains in the Sandy Hollow Fire Company,
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but that's another story.
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Secondly, when I was named editor of Antique Automobile Magazine in 1962, I was
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contacting all of the automotive writers, photographers, artists, historians, and
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libraries seeking their ideas and help.
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One I wanted to meet was Austin Clark.
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I knew he was going to attend the a a c annual meeting in Philadelphia
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and planned to meet him there.
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I was going to wait till after the annual banquet and speak to him.
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Then thus, I waited and waited and they were turning down the banquet room
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lights and he still had not emerged.
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I went in looking for him.
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It was the 50th anniversary year of Dodge and the Chrysler Corporation had
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reproduced the first Dodge brochure and one had been placed at every seat at
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the banquet I located Austin, making the rounds of all the tables, picking up all
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the Dodge brochures that had been left.
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When he saw me, he simply said They'll be paying me $5 a piece
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for these in a year or two.
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You're Bill Jackson, and what can I do to help you?
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That brings me down to the last guy on the left in the picture, yours
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Truly, at the time, I was in my eighth year as editor of Antique Automobile
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Magazine for the A-A-C-A-A stretch.
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That was to end in June, 1970 when Rosemary and I purchased the nearby
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Hummelstown Sun Weekly newspaper and printing firm, changing it to
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the sun, quote, covering Hershey Hummelstown and lower DA county.
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However, it was not the end of my automotive magazine editing years as
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just months after purchasing the Sun.
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The Classic Car Club of America came calling and I became editor
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of their classic car magazine for the next three and a half years.
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In January, 1980, I took over as publisher and managing editor of
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Bullhorn, the magazine for the Veteran Motor Car Club of America, which I
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produced for about next two years.
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Other automotive publication contributions include my column Old Car World, which
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I did for the old competition Press and Auto Week from 1964 to 68, was Vintage
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car editor of World Car Guide Magazine, also 1964 to 68, and did articles and
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photos over the years and Road and Track Motor Trend and Automobile quarterly.
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Books thanks to Friend and longtime, SAH Secretary Charlie
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Bets, who was series editor.
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I did the Lincoln Continental, 1940 to 48 for an English publisher in 1967,
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was a contributor to the American car since 1775, published in 1971, did
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Rolly Sculpture, a designer, and his work with Gordon m Burrick, published
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in 1975 with a second edition in 2008.
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A chapter on British car manufacturer, auto carrier AC in rural bertia
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when British Sports Cars Saved the Nation by John Nicholas in 2017.
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Activities in SAH.
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Due to other obligations I had, I never sought a position on the
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board of directors nor officer.
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As about the only Hershey area resident member, myself and wife Rosemary were
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responsible for making arrangements for the SAH Annual Dinner and Awards
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presentation for the first 10 years, taken us from the Hershey Italian
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Lodge to the Mill Street Inn, and on to the Hershey Parkview Banner.
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As our membership attending grew, also the printing division of my newspaper,
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the Sun printed some of the early SAH brochures as designed by John Beckham and
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edited by the secretary Charlie Betts.
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I could keep you here all day telling stories about the many SAH contributing
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members, but I'll limit it to just two.
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In June, 1970, when I was leaving the editorship of antique automobile
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and purchasing this son, a man by the name of Chester Krow visited my office
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explaining he was a publisher from Iola, Wisconsin and was planning to start a new
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publication dedicated to the auto history and collecting hub working title old cars.
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He offered me the editorship and invited Rosemary and I to visit Iola, giving
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us plane tickets to Green Bay where he picked us up and drove us on to Iola.
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We spent two days there meeting those who would be on my staff and
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touring the vast sprinting plan.
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We considered it, but the move to rural Wisconsin plus the bank's
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approval to buy the Hummelstown sun led us to turning it down.
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Mr. Raey was disappointed and asked me, where am I going to
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find another journalist that knows old cars and the hobby?
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I then told him I had been corresponding with this young man
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in Massachusetts who was producing a small, regional old car publication,
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and I thought he might be the answer.
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His name, David Brownell, and the rest is history.
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Dave guided the creation of old cars, even enlisting Henry Austin Clark Jr.
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To write a column and oh yes, he also served a term as president of SAH.
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Secondly, you have to go back to 1960.
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When Rosemary and I returned to Penn State for our master's degrees in
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journalism, we were a small class and all got to know each other.
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At the time, I was still active in Sports Car Club of America, hill Climbing,
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and the central Pennsylvania region.
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One of our class members was a girl who was majoring in theater
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arts and minoring in journalism.
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She had seen my 1957 AC Bristol Sports car, and it had stirred some
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interest, so we invited her to a party at our resident, which was
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mostly for our sports car friends.
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She came and was totally fascinated by the cars.
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Fast forward to her graduation with a job lined up in New York City
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with a theater publication, which folded shortly after she got there.
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Thus, she went to the New York Times classified ad section and saw ad
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for a research assistant at a new automotive history publication.
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Remembering how she had liked our car friends.
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She went for an interview.
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The person running the ad was l Scott Bailey, and the research
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assistant he was seeking was to help him at Automobile Quarterly.
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The young lady got the job and thus began her fabulous career in auto
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automotive history writing, including the editorship of aq, the young lady's name.
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Beverly Ray Kimes, who also, like Dave Brownell, served
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a term as President of SAH.
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Of course, I take full credit for their mutual success in the automotive
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writing field and leadership of SAH.
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But how did I arrive at the position as Editor of Man Automobile Magazine?
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Like most likely all of you, I started as a car guy, booked
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on hot rods in the late 1940s.
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This turned into a black lowered DRO three quarter race, engine 51 Ford,
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which went to Penn State with me where I became president of the Penn
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State Pacers, the only national Hot Rod Association chartered club at a
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college east of the Mississippi River.
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Then I discovered sports cars and went Sports Car Club of America
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Road racing in 1955 with a 54 Jaguar XK one 20 M Roadster, and did that
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until I got drafted in June, 1957.
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I found my career as a journalist in the Army as sports editor of the Eighth
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Infantry Division newspaper, the arrow.
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This prompted Rosemary's and my marriage in 1960 and had our return
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to Penn State for master's degrees.
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I conned my thesis committee into letting me do mine on the history of automotive
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journalism in the United States.
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I did most of my research in the vast library of early publications at the
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Swaggart Museum in Huntington, pa. There.
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I met William e Swaggart museum owner and a board member of
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the Antique Automobile Club of America, one cold winter afternoon.
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When I was doing research in his archive, he visited and sent something
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like, you really are dedicated.
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How would you like to be editor of Antique Automobile magazine?
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I answered in the affirmative, and he just simply said, oh and left.
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Fast forward a little over a year later when I had been hired as editor
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of the Union County Journal weekly newspaper in Lewisburg, pa. My phone
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rang one night, and upon answering, the caller said, this is William Swagger.
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Well, would you.
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I replied, would I what Mr. Swaggart?
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His irritated response was, would you like to be editor of antique automobile?
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Story was Editor l Scott Bailey had left the editorship of antique automobile
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to start automobile quarterly.
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This without much notice.
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As the A A CA board had pondered where they would find an editor.
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Mr. Swaggart told him my story, and the board agreed to have then
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president Mail and patent and vice president for publications.
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Jordan Norton interviewed me.
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Long story short, I got the job as a part-time position for the next six years,
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growing into a full-time job in 1968 with the stipulation I moved to Hershey and
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work out of a a CA national headquarters.
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There you have it.
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While Rosemary and I sold the sun in 2007, we both still write for it as to SAH.
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My only contribution these days is providing material for editor
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Rubin Verde at the SAH Journal.
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Case in point, my article, what's your autobiography in the March April issue
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in which I hope other SAH members will follow up with stories about a favorite
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car or automotive history happening.
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So much.
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Thanks for listening, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.
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This episode is brought to you in part by the Society of Automotive Historians.
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They encourage research into any aspect of automotive history.
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The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers, organizational
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records, print ephemera, and images to safeguard, as well as to broaden and
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deepen the understanding of motorized wheeled land transportation through
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the modern age and into the future.
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For more information about the SAH, visit www.auto history.org.
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