Jim Harris, Imperialist

["Wm. R. Ulman" <twolaneblacktop@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Harris was just a great guy.  Always friendly, and helpful.  A very
down to earth, honest man.  He was always fair to me, and I have great
respect for him and the hobby he made more pleasurable for many people.
He had quite a museum in his home, and on more than one occasion, he
gave me the tour.  He had a large neon script Imperial sign in his front
window, and it was often lit.  I have in the past gotten several parts
from Jim for each of my Imperials, past and present.

I remember on my '63 Custom that a taillight had broken, and I was put
in touch with Jim.  I met him at his house one evening after work, and
with my jaw dropped he introduced me to Connie, and showed me all around
his garage, basement, and parts.  Jim had and incredible collection of
MoPar toys, models, insignias, rare signs, etc.  He had the part I
needed, and I paid him for it.  When I dropped it off at my mechanic for
installation, one of the workers had been drinking, and he of course, is
the one I gave it to.  He immediately proceeded to drop the lens, it
busted.  When I went back to Jim to see if he had another, he gave it to
me!  

Jim also had had made some very nice mugs that had the MoPar Service
emblem insignia from each period of the Company history thru the mid
'60's and would sell them at meets.  Well, I guess the Intellectual
Property/Trademark lawyers were having a slow week at Chrysler, and they
came down hard on Jim about that.  On one visit he told me the story,
and said he could no longer sell the mugs, so he let me choose one to
have, and I picked the 1948-1953 sign in Blue, Yellow, Red and Black.  I
believe these were made by Art Beaumont who owns a business that
produces mugs of this sort.  Art is a Chrysler guy, and I introduced him
to my former roommate who purchased Art's beautiful '65 Chrysler 300L.

Jim used his '81 Imperial as a daily driver, and as Paul mentioned, he
had several other cars.  The '57 Dodge Convertible Paul mentioned was a
stunning car.  It had the dual Cross Ram option (or maybe Jim added it),
but I remember the interior had a fabric/Mylar weave that was way cool!
I don't know how well the fabric would have stood up to daily family
wear when new, but it sure looked nice in this collector car.

Jim sold me a near perfect shop manual for my '66 when I purchased the
car for near nothing.  He also unloaded his trailer to give it to me
even though he had just loaded it to go to a swap meet that weekend.

The car hobby could stand to have more people like Jim Harris, and I for
one will truly miss him, chain smoking and all...

Bill Ulman
Seattle, WA
'66 Crown convertible

-----Original Message-----
From: mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:mailing-list-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Leslie
Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2004 4:20 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list mailing-list
Subject: IML: Cards for Connie Harris was sad news


For anyone wanting to send a card to Jim's Wife 

              Connie Harris
              16743 39th Ave NE    
               Seattle,Washington 98155