Terribly sad to hear that our dear friend Michael Burke has passed away. Though I’m a relative newbie with our 300 Club (since 2005), Michael was one of the first Club members I was fortunate to have met. It was at the Krasl Concours in St. Joseph, MI – a drizzly day for the Concours that was featuring Letter Cars, around 2006 or so. Didn’t have the F there, I was walking around the show, when I came upon a yellow F coupe creeping by that caught my eye. I walked up to it, knocked on the raised driver’s side window and introduced myself as a 300 Club member. Michael was driving and had two passengers – don’t recall who they were. So, I got in the back seat and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon visiting with them – the beginning of a valued friendship. Michael loved that I was serious about driving my F to Club Meets, car shows and general open road country cruising, and helped me innumerable times when I needed something for, or had a question regarding, my F. Most recently, when my F motor required a rebuild in late 2021, he arranged for his local buddy Dale Richhart in Quincy to rebuild it. Dale was finishing up his rebuild of Andy Mikonis’ 1961 Daytona Speed Weeks G shortram 413 motor, and rebuilt my motor immediately following.
In 2019, when I was traveling to London, Michael connected me with his buddy Jan Fridberg in Sweden to attend the Power Big Meet in Lidköping, in early July. Jan picked me up at the Oslo airport, and we drove to his home, with a stop at Arne Nilsson’s for a delicious lunch of moose stew. Pulled into Arne’s driveway that’s marked by a faded red 300-E coupe shell with its nose buried at a 45-degree angle. Then over to Jan’s home, seeing his restoration of a white 300-C convertible in process, a variety of large metal-bending presses, and so much more. A 5-hour drive through the beautiful forested Swedish countryside, south to the Power Big Meet the following morning. A mind-exploding event – Wednesday set-up, Thursday thru Saturday car overload – about 19,000 total cars - at least 98% American, and about 90% of those ‘50s and ‘60s – U.S. flags flying and draped over car interiors, American music and more. Visited with Dave and Cheryl Mihalko (of Quirey), Per Blixt (Jay Leno’s painter with his Fuelie D coupe we admired at our Pasadena Meet), and other new Swede friends. What an amazing experience, and I could never thank Michael enough.
Michael has done so much to support our 300 Club, decades longer than I’ve been involved, to arrange for and import many parts we’ve needed to maintain and upgrade our Letter Cars, to have some of them restored in Sweden, and to save and offer so many Letter and other Forward Look cars that may otherwise have been crushed. And then, in 2016 when Michael stepped down as a Club Director, and asked me to step into that position, I initially felt uneasy assuming his valued role. I could ramble on, but will stop now. An extraordinary character who touched so many people in our Club, I was privileged to call Michael my friend. Our condolences to Linda.
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