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AUBURN — Del Johnson’s neighbors saw an annoyance when outsiders wanted to take over Auburn’s streets for a car show in 1956.
Johnson saw the potential of thousands of people flocking to Auburn to admire classic cars built in the city in the 1920s and ’30s.
Johnson, who died Tuesday at the age of 82, became a driving force behind the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival, which today ranks as one of America’s greatest car shows.
“Del Mar was the visionary who recognized the importance of the heritage of the Auburns, Cords and Duesenbergs to the city of Auburn, even though many people in the community were very negative toward that heritage,” local historian John Martin Smith said Tuesday.
“Del was relentless in his promotion of the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club reunion and later the festival,” Smith said.
Johnson never owned a classic car. He went to the first reunion of ACD Club members because no one else in Auburn wanted the job of welcoming the visitors.
“It was not a popular thing at all, at the time,” Johnson recalled a few years ago. Downtown merchants complained that the display of old cars took parking spaces away from shoppers. No one wanted to be reminded of the Auburn Automobile Co.’s collapse in 1937.
Johnson’s willingness to be a one-man hospitality committee would change his life. He became friends with TV star and car collector Jay Leno, legendary TV sportscaster Chris Schenkel and other celebrities who shared his love of Auburn’s historic automobiles.
“I was more interested in the people than the cars at first,” Johnson once said about the ACD Club.
Smith joined the tiny band of dreamers who shared Johnson’s vision, working unselfishly to make tourists feel welcome in Auburn.
Smith recalled that in the 1950s, the Auburn Chamber of Commerce gave Johnson a budget of $200 for the annual classic-car meet.
“He contributed much more from his own pocket to promote the event,” Smith said.
To save their own cash, Johnson and Smith convinced the Kruse family to stage Auburn's first collector-car auction in 1971. Within a few years, the auction raised enough money to create the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum and became a world-famous attraction in its own right.
“Del Johnson was the unofficial ambassador for the city of Auburn.” said Dean Kruse, owner of Kruse International auction company. “He was interested in this community more than anybody would realize. He worked tirelessly to build the festival with no money, no pay. ... This guy gave his life. He lived and breathed it every day.”
But through all the work, Johnson seemed to enjoy himself thoroughly.
“He was always fun. He always was having a good time. He always made us feel like we were special,” said Stephanie Helgesen, executive director of the ACD Festival organization.
“He has a knack for having lots of fun, but
accomplishing great things,” Jack Randinelli said about Johnson in 2003.
Johnson recruited Randinelli to work for the festival in 1964.
“He had to be the best salesman in the world, because 43 years later I’m still doing it,” Randinelli said Tuesday. Randinelli became the festival’s president when Johnson retired in 1991.
“He was truly a mentor for me in community service, in what you should do and what was the right thing to do,” Randinelli said.
“Auburn's very fortunate to have had Del Johnson as a citizen for many years,” Mayor Norm Yoder said Tuesday.
“He gave Auburn its heritage back,” by restoring the popularity of the history surrounding Auburn Automobile Co., Yoder said.
“In many ways, he'll be missed, but never forgotten, for sure.”
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