[Norman Silverma]

August 23, 2004


Longtime AROSC member, race driver, and raconteur Charlie Thieriot died of natural causes at his home on August 22. He had been incapacitated for more than a year after breaking his hip in a fall.

Charlie was an active AROSC member for more than 25 years. During much of that time he served on the Board. His background as an Alfa dealer service manager in the 1970s, together with an encyclopedic memory for all things mechanical, uniquely qualified him as an authority during tech sessions at our monthly meetings. Charlie’s experience as a race driver in the 1960s and 70s, and his devotion of countless hours to the club, was instrumental in the development of our Time Trial program. Charlie served on the Time Trial Board and sometimes single-handedly insured that events were scheduled and came off as planned. When the club fell on hard times due to declining membership during periods of massive layoffs of local engineers, it was the highly successful Time Trial program under Charlie’s leadership that kept the wolf from our door.

A graduate of St. Mark’s School and UCLA, where he majored in Political Science, Charlie was a mechanical engineer who delighted in special projects. Many of them were related to automotive products and testing, but he is perhaps best known for his work creating the mechanical armature used to animate the miniature Starship Enterprise in Star Trek the Motion Picture. In addition to his engineering work, Charlie owned and operated two film processing and video rental stores and served as an executive of a charitable medical foundation.

Charlie is perhaps best remembered in AROSC for his generosity and sense of humor. For many years, Charlie volunteered his house for the club’s annual holiday party and it was always available as a fill-in location for Board meetings. Charlie always seemed to bring a joke and a smile to everything he did, and never less so than when he conducted some of our hilarious annual White Turkey Auctions.

He is survived by his wife Deborah and son Andrew.

A memorial open house will be held on Sunday, August 29 from 1 to 5 pm at the Theriot home, 2500 Roscomare Road, Bel Air. From the 405, exit Mulholland, go left at the light, right onto Mulholland, then right on Roscomare. For information or questions about donations in Charlie’s name, call Debbie at (310) 476-8812.