Page 8 - Sample pages "Raymond Henri Dietrich" by Necah S. Furman

26 RAYMOND DIETRICH: AUTOMOTIVE ARCHITECT
Other tributes to a man whose career in various ways served as a bellwether for American society was his presentation of the Distinguished Service Citation by the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1974. This award, given for “outstanding contribution, leadership, and dedication to the automotive industry,” placed Dietrich among a select group of automotive designers, builders and industrialists – luminaries of the day such as Henry Ford and his son Edsel Ford, Walter P. Chrysler, Thomas A. Edison, Charles Kettering, and J. Frank Duryea.
One year later, in 1975, the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) selected Dietrich to receive the first honorary membership given in its forty-year history. Although Dietrich was the first recipient, significantly, his partners at Le Baron, Thomas Hibbard and Ralph Roberts, later joined these eminent ranks – an honor testifying to the amalgam of talent that contributed to the success of the young, upstart firm known as Le Baron, Carrossiers.1
Dietrich’s CCCA award was presented at the North Texas Regional Grand Classic in Dallas, Texas. In that same year, as mentioned in the Acknowledgements, officials of the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico – Dietrich’s retirement home until his death March 19, 1980 – recognized his achievements by declaring October 25, 1975, “Raymond H. Dietrich Day.”2
In 1974, Dietrich was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in the category of Inventors-Engineers-Designers. The citation read: “For his artistic ability and talents as a designer and creator ...
for designing some of the great automobiles – Lincolns, Packards, Franklins, Pierce-Arrows, and many other Classics.”
This photograph was taken on the Indianapolis Speedway. (DPF, photograph by Ronald Stuckey)
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