In a message dated 11/1/01 8:49:52 PM Central Daylight Time, lathrrs@snip.net
writes:
<< Names like Kaiser and
Studebaker no longer exist and should be remembered as well. >>
As a part of my "research" I have been investigating the G-742 family
tree...and where these companies have gone is interesting all in itself.
For example:
Reo Motors Inc. is not a name familiar to this generation, the name has
disappeared from the landscape, but the company is still around....in 1954
Reo Motors assets (except cash and accounts receivable) were transferred to
Reo Holdings Company, that company then changed its name to the Nuclear
Corporation of America (remember, at that time anything nuclear was powerful
and progressive), which has since changed its name to an acronym Nucor, and
is active in the steel industry. Along the way there have been many other
turns involving Diamond T, White, Bohn Aluminum, etc. Reo was a large,
diverse manufacturer, building not only trucks, but lawnmowers, engines (from
lawnmower to truck size), and rockets.
Studebaker is even more convoluted...becoming Studebaker-Packard, then
Studebaker-Worthington, and in 1979 was taken over by McGraw-Edison and
vanished. Studebaker had even more turns, involving Curtiss-Wright, and
Utica-Bend (deuces with either of these nameplates, as well as S-P are out
there).
The big Studebaker plant on Chippewa Avenue on the outskirts of South Bend
still stands...it was built by the govt during WWII and operated by
Studebaker to build Wright Cyclone aircraft engines under license (look at
the nameplate on the engines on many of the flying B-17s...builders plate
doesn't say Curtiss-Wright, rather, Studebaker Corporation). The plant
passed back and forth between Stude and C-W after the war, before winding up
as Kaiser-Jeep's, which in turn became General Products Div of American
Motors, then AM General. Two months ago, the plant was surrounded by new
Humvee's although I understand they are no longer built there.
More boring tales to come later.
David Doyle
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