In Memoriam: Great Hot Rodders We Lost In 2015

It’s not everyday that you write an obituary or memorial for a hero that has been lost, let alone capture the essence of ten real life heroes that we have lost this past year. Every year as the New Year creeps closer, every media agency hurriedly scrambles to post their annual “people lost this year” segment. Sadly, these typically miss the true mark on loss that is felt when we lose legends.

This is why we don’t look forward to writing the year end tribute to those that have departed in the past year. Never less, we have to put forward our best effort to capture the spirit of those lost legends. With a heavy heart, we look back at the hot rod heroes that left us in 2015.

LeRoi “Tex” Smith 1933– 2015.

LeRoi “Tex” Smith – June 11, 2015

Smith became a magazine writer, book author, racer, and car builder the old fashioned way. Through hard work and perseverance, Tex Smith (who was from Oklahoma, not Texas) became the hot rodder’s trusted source for information.

He began working with publishers and even started his own magazines through McMullen Publishing. A court case later saw the judge awarding Smith 20 percent share of McMullen’s business which ended up as a fourtune for Smith when the company was sold.

Smith stayed active in hot rodding, even after moving to Australia a decade ago, traveling back to the United States for several different hot rod and street rod events each year. Smith passed away in Australia on June 11, after a “lingering illness.”

Roger Garten 1946 – June 27, 2015.

Roger Garten – June 27, 2015

Racer Roger Garten died in a horrific racing crash in a nostalgia funny car race. Garten had been retired from racing for 30 years before being lured back to run the legendary War Horse nostalgia funny car.

His long and storied career in the fuel altered classes is the stuff that legends are made of. Retiring from racing after several successful seasons, including the 1975 division 7 Championship, Garten went to work as a heavy-equipment operator for the next 39 years.

Garten returned to the funny car class as part of the NHRA’s hot rod heritage series in 2010, where he found almost immediate success again with a win at Sacramento Raceway in June of that year.

Five years into his second racing career, Garten’s War Horse and Nitro Nick car driven by Matt Bynum crashed when the War Horse crossed over the center line into the other car. Bynum was not injured in the crash.

Bo Huff March 12, 1943 – August 4, 2015.

Bo Huff – August 4, 2015

Legendary car painter and fabricator Gerald Douglas “Bo” Huff passed away after a five year battle with cancer. Huff, originally a coal miner from Arkansas, found a passion in cars after watching older guys in town lowering their cars for cruising. This turned into a lifetime passion for the self taught engineer.

He won numerous awards at prestigious car shows. He was an avid member of the Dead Sleds Car Club. Bo was inducted into the National Rod & Custom Hall of Fame and the Kustom Kemps of America Hall of Fame for his life’s work. Huff was laid to rest in Sunnyside, Utah on Saturday, August 8, 2015.

Otto Ryssman September 10, 1929 – August 20, 2015.

Otto Ryssman – August 20, 2015

Ryssman is most popular for being one of five charter members of the Bonneville 200 mph club, joining Willie Young, George Hill, Art Chrisman and Johnny Rogers. Despite his early success in speed records, Ryssman actually had a very short Hot Rod career that was filled with enough speed feats to achieve legendary status.

A member of the Gasketeers car club in Long Beach, Ryssman formed an alliance with cam grinder Chuck Potvin in which Ryssman’s Hot Rods were the test vehicles for Potvin’s many fuel and cam experiments. Potvin and Ryssman would take nitroglycerine out of dynamite and combine it with alcohol to create their own fuel. About this time, Potvin convinced Ryssman to join the legendary Lancers car club where many of the land speed racers were members.

Ryssman also friended Vic Edelbrock Sr. and a fresh new speed merchant, Chet Herbert. Surrounding himself with some of the brightest minds of the time, Ryssman was destined for greatness. He stopped racing in the 1950s after a series of accidents and a lengthy court case.

Steven “The Pizz” Pizzurro 1958 – 2015.

Steven “The Pizz” Pizzurro – August 30, 2015

The Pizz has been called the “Lord of Lowbrow,” showing the impact the he had on the art movement. His work has been published in Ed Roth’s Rat Fink Comix, Scratchez and Rip Off Comix. Despite being widely published, Pizz’s work was probably best known for his cover designs for the punk label Sympathy for the Record Industry.

Born to an Italian family in Orange County, Pizzurro’s Southern California background influenced his art in a major way. The colorful works almost always featured Hot Rods, pin-ups, skateboarders, apocalyptic scenes, motorcyclists and other Los Angeles area staples.

On Sunday, August 30, 2015, he spray painted the word “Ozymandias” on the wall behind the bed in a rented hotel room , took a picture of this final work, and posted it on instagram. He then wrapped a hotel towel around a .357 handgun and shot himself in the rented room. The artist was only 57 years old.

Dick Guldstrand 1927 – 2015.

Dick Guldstrand – September 2, 2015

Mr. Corvette, as he became known, would ended up rubbing elbows with the father of the Corvette himself, Zora Arkus-Duntov and many other automotive greats like Roger Penske, Bob Bondurant, and Don Yenko, with whom he helped develop and build a Corvette L88 that set a 171 mph speed record at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans.

That’s only the tip of Mr. Corvette’s many accomplishments, and he remained intimately involved in racing and Corvette’s for the rest of his life. Guldstrand developed a reputation for candid honesty and competitiveness, but he’s also remembered for being a warm and welcoming personality who just loved what he got to do.

George Barris November 20, 1925 – November 5, 2015.

George Barris – November 5, 2015

Credited with building some of the most iconic cars of the early television era, Barris helped define custom car culture in California with creations like the Batmobile.

Barris leaves a legacy of custom cars built for TV shows, movies, celebrities and heads of state. He was a pioneer in developing scale-sized, plastic models of his full-sized customized cars.

Barris worked out of a small shop in North Hollywood, near Universal Studios. Known for building cars like the Batmobile, the Munster’s Koach and the Black Beauty car used in the Green Hornet TV series, Barris specialized in creating custom cars for private collectors as well.

Art Fitzpatrick 1919 – 2015. Photo from carart.us

Art Fitzpatrick – November 17, 2015

Art Fitzpatrick, who created some of GM’s most memorable advertisements from this golden era of automotive marketing, passed away November 17, at the age of 96 in his Carlsbad, California, home.

Serving in GM’s employ from 1959 until 1971, Fitzpatrick spent most of his life working for various automakers, including Packard as a designer, and Mercury as an ad man. In cahoots with his partner Van Kaufman, Fitzpatrick was responsible for many of Pontiac’s “wide track” performance car advertisements in exotic locales. So impressed was Pontiac CEO John DeLorean that he banned the use of photographs in advertising for the brand, relying instead on this talented pair of artists. All in all the two artists created 285 memorable Pontiac ads for which they’re best remembered.

But Fitzpatrick didn’t put down his pen after his stint at GM. In 2005 and 2008, Fitzpatrick and the US Postal Service released a series of commemorative stamps entitled “America on the Move” that featured pictures of classic American cars. Even at age 96, Fitzpatrick was personally on hand to deliver a speech back in June at the opening of a gallery featuring 70 drawings he had donated.

William R. “Bill” Burke May 7, 1944 – November 15, 2015.

William R. “Bill” Burke – November 25, 2015

Bill Burke, A pioneer of the early California hot rod car culture that gave rise to racing on the California dry lakes and the streets of Los Angeles in the 1930s, he was best known for creating the first belly tank race car, which led to a class of racers known as “lakesters.” He is also credited with building the 3rd covered-wheel streamliner, the first to employ a fiberglass body powered by a motorcycle engine.

Bill, together with the Road Rebels Car Club, helped found the Western Timing Association, and was an early supporter of the Southern California Timing Association, as well as the first hotrod magazine, Throttle. He later worked with Robert E. “Pete” Petersen as the advertising manager for Hot Rod Magazine. Pete also had him manage some of the first auto shows in Los Angeles, Detroit and New York. He was a close friend and colleague of Wally Parks who founded the National Hot Rod Association.

He was there on the salt when it all began, volunteering at the inaugural 1949 Bonneville Nationals, now known as “Speed Week” in Utah, as the starter as well as driving his belly tank lakester. By 1960, he had built a new style fiberglass-bodied streamliner that mimicked a squashed torpedo called “The Pumpkin Seed” setting a 205.949 mph record that earned him life membership in the Bonneville 200 MPH Club. Later, with a different motor he set another record at 264 mph.

Gary Meadors August 18, 1939 – December 27, 2015.

Gary Meadors – December 27, 2015

Gary Meadors has passed away at his home in Arizona. The cause of death was listed as natural causes but he had been struggling with heart problems for several years. He was 76 years old. Gary Meadors was the founder and Chairman of the Board of the Goodguys Rod & Custom Association before turning over the reigns to his son Marc.

He accomplished several milestones in his hot rodding career including membership in the prestigious Bonneville 200 mph club driving the Dozier and Hegarty blown flathead Chrysler 8 powered streamliner to a record speed of 223.220 mph at the Bonneville Salt Flats in 1994. In 1995, Gary was given the Street Rodder magazine Lifetime Achievement award. He was inducted into the Street Rod Marketing Alliance Hall of Fame in 1998 and at the 2004 SEMAshow in Las Vegas.

About the author

Bobby Kimbrough

Bobby grew up in the heart of Illinois, becoming an avid dirt track race fan which has developed into a life long passion. Taking a break from the Midwest dirt tracks to fight evil doers in the world, he completed a full 21 year career in the Marine Corps.
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