MBDiagMan

Thanks for having such a Forum here.

My Dad was not famous, not a political leader or a money rich man. He WAS, however, a great example of the "Greatest Generation."

He was born December 22, 1921 in Rockwood, Texas and almost died as an infant had it not been for a loving Aunt who constantly rubbed his stomach for some particular malady and saved his life.

His Dad died when he was 12 leaving him to care for a younger sister and help his Mother. His formal education stopped at that time, but he never stopped learning. At the age of 16 he managed to get a Model A engine into an Essex because that's all he had. He learned to work on cars, but ended up running an Ice Plant where he was employed at the time of the Pearl Harbor bombing.

He married my Mother not long after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and joined the US Navy. He went through several schools before ending up as a Motor Machinist on a Destroyer Escort that was part of a Flotilla that captured a German Submarine. He then ended up on the Secretary of the Navy's Staff in Washington DC where he was serving at the end of the war. My Mom worked for the Department of the Navy at the time and they were both part of the biggest party ever seen in Washington DC up to that time upon VJ Day.

After WWII he opened an independent garage and served as the Service Department for a Kaiser-Frazer dealership. He was a very analyitical and well read mechanic and a good one. Although some might say that he was "only a mechanic," he was a successful one. Harry Truman once said "Success is not what you do, but how well you do it."

I was born in 1949 and grew up hanging around his shop being put to work with more and more responsibilities as I grew. I went in the Army in 1968 and college thereafter with a successful career in software and automation. I always and still do work on cars, maybe out of admiration for my Dad.

He never had a Mustang, but always loved them. He took a big interest in all of them that I've had including two 66's, an 86 GT and an 06 GT.

February of 09 he had six stints and suffered drastically from the radical drugs that were used. He began suffering Dimensia and other problems and ended up in a very fine Texas State Veterans home named Clyde Cosper Center in Bonham, Texas. Clyde Cosper was a WWII decorated bomber pilot who was killed in action.

January of this year he succumbed to all the medical issues and went to the Pearly Gates and on to find someone's car that needed attention.

As I said, he wasn't famous, but he was a GREAT man and lived a great life.