[Keith Seymore]

I had another one of those really unusual, crazy "It's a small world" coincidences today....

My church is large enough to need a "traffic team", and we utilize help from the Oakland County Sheriff's deputies to assisting getting cars in and out of the parking lot off the main road.

Naturally, I help park (...where else could I get "paid" for standing in the road and watching cars go by?...) and was visiting with the Deputy assigned to the north lot. I had brought him his two-way radio and we were shooting the breeze when I noticed his nametag:

It said "P. Deesen".

I asked him "do you happen to know a fella named Paul Deesen?"

"Paul Deesen Sr?" he said. "I'm Paul Deesen Jr".

Unbelievable. For those of you not already familiar with Paul Deesen (Sr) - he's the guy that designed the GTO emblem. And invented the red line tire. And designed the '65 Gran Prix. Among other things.

At any rate, we had a really nice visit. Very pleasant young man and it sounds like he enjoys his father's antics as much as we do.

Hopefully, I don't get any other chance encounters with Officer Deesen while I'm out driving one of my Pontiacs.



K

[aukc]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

... For those of you not already familiar with Paul Deesen (Sr) - he's the guy that designed the GTO emblem. And invented the red line tire. And designed the '65 Gran Prix. Among other things ....

Paul Deesen, when he started at Pontiac in 1954, worked under chief stylist Paul Gillan, on Strato Star show car

[Old Blue 66]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

I had another one of those really unusual, crazy "It's a small world" coincidences today....

My church is large enough to need a "traffic team", and we utilize help from the Oakland County Sheriff's deputies to assisting getting cars in and out of the parking lot off the main road.

Naturally, I help park (...where else could I get "paid" for standing in the road and watching cars go by?...) and was visiting with the Deputy assigned to the north lot. I had brought him his two-way radio and we were shooting the breeze when I noticed his nametag:

It said "P. Deesen".

I asked him "do you happen to know a fella named Paul Deesen?"
"Paul Deesen Sr?" he said. "I'm Paul Deesen Jr".

Unbelievable. For those of you not already familiar with Paul Deesen (Sr) - he's the guy that designed the GTO emblem. And invented the red line tire. And designed the '65 Gran Prix. Among other things.

At any rate, we had a really nice visit. Very pleasant young man and it sounds like he enjoys his father's antics as much as we do.

Hopefully, I don't get any other chance encounters with Officer Deesen while I'm out driving one of my Pontiacs.



K

Great story Keith

[Keith Seymore]

Thanks to Bill Nawrot (YNOBIL) for letting me know my GTO was in a new calendar -

This is the David Newhardt GTO calendar for 2013. There's a car from each year from '64 - '74 (two '65's - as there should be ) and a 2004.

In my case the photos were taken in November of 2007 and were from the same batch used in the big GTO book.

[Alvin]

Congrats to Keith and all others who cars were used it the 2013 calandar.

[Tenney]

Nice!!

[arbys]

Thanks for taking the time to post such an interesting time capsule for us. Thia was definitely a very interesting period of drag racing and automotive development. Uncharted territories and human innovation and adaptation at its finest. We wouldn't be where we are today with out those people redefining the "box".

[YNOBIL]

My Lucerne Blue '72 GTO is September and Joe Sparks' Black '73 is October. The good news is the calendars are now 1/2 price at $7. MotorBooks is also selling the hard & soft cover GTO book at $37.50 & $22.49. A $50 order will get you Free Shipping.
Here's the Link:
http://www.qbookshop.com/products/19...m_medium=email

[psullivan]

Hi Keith,
The story of you family and the cars was just increadable. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Phil

[cuz68]

Keith, It took me about 6-hrs to read your great story with great photos I enjoyed it very much, I notice your dad used the same tag number on the 64 and the 65-HW-1031? I guess someone at least took the tags off for him, I think that is on page 3 You had a great dad. Thank you Randy.

[Keith Seymore]

This week represents the end of an era for me -

For the last 14 years I have been in GM engineering project management assigned to various product programs. We take a vehicle model all the way from the clay in the studio, through the design and development process, help launch it in the assembly plant and stay with it until the build is stable. Anything related to "engineering" fell under my responsibility (kind of like being the "design engineer for the whole car").

Some of the products birthed under my watchful eye while in this capacity were the 2001 GMC Denali, the 2002 Cadillac Escalade, the 2003 Chevy/GMC pickup, the 2007 Chevy/GMC and Cadillac SUVs, the 2008 Hummer H2 (I actually wrote the original engineering plan for what became the H2) and, for the last 4 years, the 2011/2012/2013/2014 Chevy Volt, Opel Ampera and Holden Volt. So - it's been a fun ride and I have particularly enjoyed the cross functional relationships (working with Product Planning, Purchasing, Marketing, Service, Product Recalls - ok, maybe not, Material Logistics, etc) and being the "go to" guy for options, vehicle complexity and understanding how the car goes together.

Starting Monday I will be a design engineer in the Underbody Structures group (floor pan and front of dash), once again with the truck group. It will be nice working with my old truck buds, and I think it will be somewhat liberating to only be responsible for one series of parts (and not the whole car). Initially I will be helping the group get better organized: developing the part number permutations/tracking, assisting in getting new parts released and on contract with the suppliers, and interfacing with the Program Teams (the people in my current job). Once we are through that hurdle they'll have to train this old dog on how to use all those fancy computers to actually design a part and start bending some metal.

I might even have a little more free time and be able to take some vacations during the summer, enjoying my old car and old truck hobby My wife is already making vacation plans to fill up this additional free time she thinks I am going to have...

K

[YNOBIL]

Keith, Good luck in your new assignment. Thanks for your input on the 2003 pickups, my wife and I love our 2003 Silverado SS.

[arbys]

Congratulations, don't be scared of computer design. It even begins to get fun after a while when you see all that it can do plus the time savings and design possibilities.
In '95 my boss told me I was going to CAD training at the college. I told him no, I was doing my designing on paper, that I would pass. One month later I was in class. After about 6 months (we didn't get the programs in the office for 3 months, I gradually put some of my designs on paper. After about 6 more months I was doing 100% of my design on the CAD. They told I was first one to do 100% design on CAD throughout the whole company which had about 250 designers. I retired in 05 and do miss the CAD.

[Tenney]

Cool, Keith, congrats! Could be you'll be printing those parts before too long?

[Keith Seymore]

GTO's birthday today!

49 years old - built on Sept 18, 1964.

K

[YNOBIL]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

GTO's birthday today!

49 years old - built on Sept 18, 1964.

K

Happy Birthday to your '65. I celebrate my '72's Birthday, March 1, 1972 and Patti's Lincoln Town Car, May 22, 1997. So I guess we're both car crazy.

[aukc]

Originally Posted by Keith Seymore

GTO's birthday today!

49 years old - built on Sept 18, 1964.

K

and did she get any birthday presents on this special day?

[400 4spd.]

Keith, I love the tow bar brackets.
Another subtle example of the saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words".
So many captions could be put with that picture, very cool.

[transam1972]

wow!..who would of thought!?..a period design that is timeless...I wonder if HOT WHEELS had to pay a fee as they used that design?!...very nice G.T.O.

[Keith Seymore]

Had a big Father's Day weekend these last couple days.

Saturday was the Widetrackers Chapter "Dustoff" (...which I forgot about ).

Joseph and I wiped off the Grand Prix and took it over to the 4H fairground. Won a "second place" for the vintage GP class, which is unusual since I typically either don't participate or I get beat by Jim Larson's '63 GP.



Also saw a couple of these for sale in John Sawruk's toy bin:



(lol)