Meeting The Man on the Cover

George Duck of Paso Robles, California contacted us asking about the black and white photograph that we used on the cover of our previous Stoddard 356 Catalog.  George knew one of the men depicted in photo that was shot in Germany in the late 1950s.  We dug through our archives and sent along the artwork.  

George just got back with us about his request and more information about the man in that grainy black and white photo.  The photo on the cover of the Stoddard catalog featured the Porsche Zuffenhausen Factory in 1959 with a number of 356A Speedsters on trolleys waiting for assembly. 

In George's words, "I just gave Jack Pfluegler his photo all framed this past Saturday.  I had the photo you sent me professionally scanned and “cleaned up”  and then enlarged it a bit to mount in the frame – it came out nice.  He loved it as the only copy he had was a worn out catalog so this is a big upgrade. Jack was 19 in the photo and today Jack is 76. He is the gentleman in the black shirt in the picture, center left. 

The photo was taken on a Saturday as the photographers from Porsche could not get a good photo during working hours due to all the cigarette smoke in the air .  They came by on Friday and asked if Jack was staying the weekend or going home (he lived about 150 miles away and often stayed over) – he was staying, so they asked him to come in to help with the photo shoot.

Since then, Jack worked for Porsche in many capacities including the Factory team and when he came to the US continued on with his shop in California where he had extensive dealings with Stoddard’s as a top supplier of Porsche parts in the US. 

I gave this to him on late in the afternoon on Saturday at his home shop (he works in his shop almost every day) – note the black 911 he is working on and my 1969 VW Bus I just dropped off ( Jack services all my air cooled cars, 1963 356, 1987 911, a 1965 Beetle and a 1969 Bus ).

Jack is an outstanding mechanic (and individual) and goes above and beyond for his customers – he does not just  “do the job” -- he follows up on all the little details to make the car  as good as it possibly can be when it leaves his shop with all the points noted on the work order.

The photo is a nice remembrance but the real story here is a man who loves his work and does it to perfection – very much an inspiration."

And a big "Thank You" to George (and Jack!) for this very cool story.  

 

 

 

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