Edgar W. Statt 1906 - 1996
My dad, Edgar (Ed) Statt achieved his Electrical Engineer Diploma from the University of Chicago and was hired by GM Canada to be in charge as Chief Electrician for Regina Saskatchewan's GM Assembly plant, which in the 1930's and 40's was building cars and pick-up trucks until World War II broke out. Although my Dad helped as the plant was re-tooled for War Production, he felt it was his duty to leave the job that he loved with GM and voluntarily enlisted in the Engineering Corps of the Canadian Army to fight for the freedom of his Country. He instilled in me a love of cars in general, but mostly he was a "GM Man" all his life even when he ran a garage called Statt's Garage all through the Dirty Thirty's when cars had to be fixed "somehow" for folks who had no money.
I am 60 years old myself this year and I have golden memories as a child laying under many of our old family cars like the Durant, 490 Chevrolet (made from 1916 thru 1922) and our "1924 Chevrolet" with my Dad, learning what things were and how they worked and what stupid designs and what great innovations were tried by the hundreds of cars being manufactured then. All but a handful of those brands remain, like "Henry's" and "The Dodge Brothers", McLaughlins, and of course Louis Chevrolet the "Car Racer".
My dad wove me a rich heritage of the automobile and we talked many hours on many occasions at length about GM cars and their designs and quality. In 1996, my Dad passed away at 90 years old and the world lost a most remarkable man. No one really noticed, and the world never felt so much as a ripple and time just went on. My Dad left me with his love for GM cars and a thorough knowledge of how it all works. My own automotive career started in 1966 when I started as an apprentice at Regina Rambler Motors, which was later to become Hauser Chevrolet Olds, and worked at dealers like Nicholson Chev Olds and Wheaton Chev Olds.
Today, I own and operate Redline Performance, which this year is celebrating 25 years of auto repairs and through it all I'm still in love with GM Cars. In fact, I'm a GM Stockholder and I'm also in love with my beautiful new Cadillac DTS that I wish my Dad were here to see and so he'd know GM is still in the business of building the most reliable cars in the world.
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