Oldsmobile History Center, 1986-2004. Chapter 2
Written by James R. Walkinshaw
The Oldsmobile Centennial Book Setting the Pace
Helen and I decided we needed more data to help in writing the book. We went to the Automobile Manufacturers Association across from the GM Building in Detroit to read trade journals and collect articles. We would spend three days there reading and copying materials and do this every month for a year or so. We also decided to start an oral history program with Olds retirees. We traveled to Florida, South Carolina, Arizona and throughout Michigan over the next few years talking and recording over 170 people’s stories. These ranged from General Managers to line workers, covered the many departments in the organization and spanned the time from 1919 to present. We indexed all the tapes so we could find subject matter and these people actually told the story we wanted to tell.
Oldsmobile had a vault where materials were stored for posterity’s sake. It was located in a long skinny second floor corridor in the engine plant. File drawers were stacked ten high, cast iron dust was everywhere and it was locked up. Fortunately we knew the Vault manager and were able to go through this material. We spent several Christmas holiday breaks “relocating artifacts” to the History Center.
Phil Workman had retired from the PR Department in 1989 and was replaced by Gus Buenz. People would send us all kinds of material as time wore on. When folks changed jobs or the organization changed we would get more "stuff." As each model year passed we also got all of the PR material. We eventually outgrew the original room we had in the training center and took over several other rooms.
In 1995, the book was shaping up pretty good. What to call it, The Best Thing on Wheels an early Curved Dash ad had said. Gus didn’t like that, "everybody’s car was the best thing on wheels." Oldsmobile, the People, the Plant and the Products was what I had started with. It was too bland. In the very early days, Olds had commissioned the painter William H. Foster to paint a portrait of a 1910 Limited racing the New York Central Limited train. It was called, Setting the Pace. I woke up in the middle of the night and it hit me, that’s got to be the title. Gus and Helen loved it. Now how would we pay for the book? I had gotten estimates for the book before I retired, about $250,000. Helen and I thought we might have to mortgage our houses to do it but, Olds came to the rescue. Our 100th anniversary was to be in 1997, the book would be the kick off for the event. We gave every GM Lansing retiree, employee, Olds car club member and dealership a copy, about 50,000 copies.
Around the Centennial, the History Center moved to a new facility in downtown Lansing. At this time we had 225 five drawer files, 100,000 photos, 5,000 original ads, hundreds of videos and movies and a lot of miscellaneous material. I had decided to retire the second time to write another book on Olds War Years. Helen and I had found 20,000 negatives showing the WWII and other war work that Olds was engaged in. We decided they would provide a great pictorial book. So a year later Oldsmobile, A War Years Pictorial was issued.
Ed Stanchak, another Olds retiree, took over for me. Helen stayed on working with Ed. I was in and out getting materials. Pam Clark, who had worked on the Centennial, was also helping with running the History Center.
Helen retired for the second time in 2000, although she continued to spend some time at the Center. Oldsmobile was now going to go away in 2004. GM consolidated all of the History Centers in a new GM Heritage Center in Sterling Heights. Ed and Pam would spend the next few years organizing the materials at this new location. Ed would eventually also retire again and the task of managing the collection would fall to other personnel in the GM Heritage Center.
Helen and I had decided we needed to update the Setting the Pace book with the Last Chapter of Olds History. We had just started writing it when Helen passed away. I had the task of publishing the Last Chapter which came out in 2005. This ended our active engagement with the History Center. Over those years Helen had received many awards for her efforts in the Olds and auto industry history. Rightfully, she had been called, "The First Lady of Oldsmobile."
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