Well, here we go with another one of these messages that have to start out with, it is with a heavy heart. Our good friend Harry Brinkman passed away in his sleep Saturday night the 3rd of May 2008. What he died of was complications of MSA Multiple Systems Atrophy. This acts like Parkinson’s but is much more aggressive, so there that is.
Now for those of you that don’t know Harry is the reason there is a MOB Chapter here is a little history for you. Back in 1984 a guy named Al LeBaugh was the vice-president of AOMCI and in charge of getting new Chapters started. I can remember Al calling up at our house in Speedway and asking Dad to start a Chapter. We had an organizational meeting to see if there was any interest and it was attended by only about 6 guys. I still have that photo. We had a name for the new Chapter of HAMS, it stood for Hoosier Antique Motor Society. After our little meeting Dad decided that there just wasn’t enough interest to go ahead with it so that was it. This meeting must have been sometime around 1980.
So now we move on to sometime in the 1983 to early 1984 area. For some reason Al called to talk to Harry to talk about something else, like Mercury racing stuff, and brought up the fact that he had called sometime ago if we would start a Chapter. Harry, in his own way, said “screw it” let’s just do it and told Al that night over the phone we would do it. Harry told Al to make me the President, Dad the Vice-president and Harry would serve as the Secretary.
Al then called me and told me I had to join the Club to be an officer of a Chapter so he joined me up and paid my first years membership and that is how it all started. Now you might be saying wait a minute, where did the MOB name come from? Well, during that phone call to Al, where the Chapter was officially started, Harry came up with that. He didn't know, or couldn’t remember the name we had picked out for our Chapter and he, being originally from up north in Syracuse where the word Michiana was used from time to time just blurted out the MOB name.
So now it is time to bid farewell, not only to the man light years ahead of his competitors in modified racing but to also recognize that his kick start was just what we needed to become what we are today.
A great thanks for everything Harry,
Jay