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Chesapeake Region Founders

Karl Feather    Burgoyne Frank    Willard Prentice

OUR FIRST REGIONAL DIRECTOR

by Charter Member Willard Prentice

Because 1996 marked the 100th anniversary of the start of automobile manufacturing on a commercial basis in the United States, and since it also marked the completion of our 40th year as a Region of AACA, our editor thought we should reminisce a bit about our charter members and our first year’s activities.

Of course it would be nice if each of our charter members could prepare a memoir describing his club activities during 1955 which we could publish in the Bulletin. The only trouble is that at least ten of our 24 charter members have gone to their rewards and have left us no documents describing their club activities. Several others have moved to parts unknown. To start the ball rolling, I volunteered to see what I could find about our first Regional Director, Karl W. Feather. (The term PRESIDENT was not then used in AACA Regions.)

I don’t recall how I first met Karl Feather, but we both lived in the vicinity of Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, and perhaps he saw me in my 1924 Franklin and introduced himself. He said he was interested in old cars and had several Franklins. I told him I was a charter member of National Capital Region of AACA, that we held monthly meetings in Bethesda, and invited him to ride over with me to the next meeting. He accepted and was so favorably impressed with the meeting that on the way home he talked about organizing a Chapter of National Capital Region with regular meetings in Baltimore. I supported the idea of a Baltimore club but told him I thought we should aim at forming a Region of our own.

Karl worked at the Glenn L. Martin aircraft plant in Middle River and knew a number of people who were mechanics or were otherwise interested in automobiles. He did a good job of spreading the word about our proposed club. Our first meeting was held on March 13, 1955.

At the meeting we agreed on forming a Region of AACA to be known as Chesapeake Region. Karl was elected Regional Director with Joseph Mullan, Assistant. Ed Hook was made Activities Chairman, and I was elected Secretary/Treasurer.

Our first club activity was to participate in Baltimore’s traditional Easter Parade on North Charles Street. We assembled on Loch Raven Boulevard near City College. We had about 20 antique cars led by Activities Chairman Ed Hook in his 1909 Hupmobile. We proceeded west to Charles Street to join the parade of mostly pedestrians decked out in their Easter finery. It was undoubtedly Baltimore’s first antique car parade.

We have practically no information on Karl’s early life. The late Frank Viers, who knew him at Martin’s, seemed to recall that Karl had taught school in his native West Virginia before coming to Maryland. He probably came to the Baltimore area with the influx of workers during World War II.

His very brief obituary in the Baltimore Evening Sun for December 9, 1964 says he died the previous Friday at age 71. It says he worked first as "an investigating engineer in the (Martin) firm’s manufacturing and research development group and later served as a lead supervisor." Frank, however, remembered him as a liaison man between different departments in the plant. He retired from Martin’s about 1962 and became involved in a store supplying prosthetics.

We have but little information about Karl’s family life. As I recall, he mentioned only one son, Denny. Burgoyne Frank thought that Denny lived near Albright, West Virginia, but a recent letter sent to that address was returned by the post office marked "Not Known." One sent to Kingwood was similarly returned.

The obituary states that funeral services were being held in Kingwood, WV, which is only a short distance from Albright.

Francis Werneth recalls how he met Karl. Francis was making house calls in Baltimore, near 31st Street and The Alameda, collecting premiums for his insurance company when he noticed several garages with doors open, all containing old cars. Francis stopped to talk with the owner who turned out to be Karl Feather.

At that time Francis was living at his parents’ home, and, with his mother’s approval, he invited Karl to dinner on a certain day. It was distinctly stated that the dinner would be at six o’clock. The dinner guest arrived at five o’clock--much to Mrs. Werneth’s displeasure, as she was busy preparing the dinner. There was no second dinner invitation, but Francis did keep in touch with Karl for some time.

The old cars in the garages were mostly Franklins of various ages and mostly in need of restoration but one or two were driveable. I heard of a Franklin that was available for the asking in west Baltimore. Karl and I went over to look at it. It was not running, but in fairly sound condition. I towed it to one of Karl’s garages. After Karl’s death it just disappeared. Karl was strictly a Franklin man, but since Franklins were not produced after 1934, for daily transportation he drove something of similar design. While he was working at the Martin plant he drove a VW "Beetle", and when I last saw him he was driving another air-cooled car, a German Porsche.

Although Karl is considered to be our 1955 Regional Director, his term of office actually extended until January 29, 1956 when we had our first annual meeting, which was held at Wilson’s Restaurant on West North Avenue in Baltimore, and elected new Officers. Hence when the Coast-to-Coast parade of antique cars promoting the March of Dimes polio fund was scheduled to pass through Baltimore in January 1956, it was Regional Director Karl Feather who was invited to participate in a program on TV station WAAM channel 13 (now WJZ) to talk about antique cars and, of course, plug for donations for the March of Dimes. Then when the travelers arrived in Baltimore, it was Karl in one of his Franklins who escorted them on to Laurel.

The photo of Karl was taken in the WAAM studios on Television Hill on January 9, 1956. The car is a 1924 Franklin sedan that I owned from 1951 until 1959.

Click on photo to view full size.