In Memorium - Charlie Thieriot

[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.

[italcarguy]

This is a big loss, he was one of the nicest people I've ever met. He always was asking about my racing and really inspired me with a lot of the decisions I've made with racing. I literally used to take a notepad with me because he would gimme so many tips and tricks, I had to write them down to remember all of them! I used to visit with him from time to time and soon realized he had a good answer to many questions. He will be missed greatly, but his memory will carry on.

You might also want to note Charlie raced a 1600 GTA in the original Trans Am and 2.5 Challenge series'.

[Norman Silverma]

It seems that everybody who met Charlie has a story to tell. I hope we get a lot of them on this thread. He was a rare breed of good people and a legendary character.

[smestas]

I didn't have the good fortune to ever meet Charlie. Still, I mourn our loss.

As the poet said... the loss of any good man is a loss to us all...

[Judy]

I began time trialling in 1985 when Charlie was the director of the program, and he never ceased to amaze me with how he could keep a group together, get good track dates, and bring in more and more people. He was one of the quickest-thinking people I've ever met, and had outlandish stories of his Trans-Am days, as well as a myriad of other stories that -- well, Charlie was good at captivating an audience. I never tired of listening to him talk.
He was a real inspiration to someone who knew nothing about racing, and gave ample opportunities to people without putting up with feedback. He knew how to filter out the negatives.
We will all miss him.

[italcarguy]

Here are a couple of images I have of Charlie from back in the day. They were sent to me a while back by Gene Olsen, a close friend fo Charlie's.

First picture is of his Trans Am 1600 GTA parked outside the race shop he shared with 1967 B Sedan Champion Vic Provenzano out in Van Nuys, CA

Second picture is from the Los Angeles Times. What you see is the end result of an oil line bursting inside his car, throwing hot oil on him, and causing him to lose control and hit a wall.

One of my favorie stories was when he used to drive his fully race prepped Trans Am 1600 GTA to school. He used to tell me he'd drive it down the 405 freeway and then take the streets to Cal State Northridge. Don't think anyone could get away with that these days...probably Charlie still could though.

[Norman Silverma]

I just want to make a couple of comments about the wonderful and mostly joyful gathering that occurred at Charlies home yesterday. His wife Deb was a caring hostess to a large turnout of friends, most of whom trace their relationship with Charlie back decades.
We would love to gather some of the stories that were told, events recounted and compose a book of memories. Please use this thread or the message board at www.arosc.org to post. The opening would be the beautiful eulogy written by his son and I envision a title "Irreverence or How To Really Enjoy Your Friends And The Time You Have".
The AROSC Board has started to gather ideas for both short and long term memorials for Charlie and we would like your ideas. For starters, we are going back into the archives to find the original foil decal applications used by the competition group and redesign them with Charlies name. We will definitely have a memorial at the upcoming Time Trial/ Race weekend at Willowsprings October 23-24 and will probably dedicate next years season to Charlie. We are looking for ideas for permanent recognition of Charlies efforts on behalf of AROSC. Let's have some ideas for a Charlie Cup.

[alfa63]

Didn't Charlie drive a right-hand drive GTV to the time-trial events during the early 90's? I remember that car as well as a GTV6. (If not, could be my mind wasting away...) While I never met him while I was time-trialing, I do remember he seemed to be the backbone of the program. Kinda like the event just ran better if Charlie was there.

Perhaps the Charlie Cup could go to the person at the end of the year who best represented his spirit and personality and just so happened to do pretty well in the time trial standings.

[italcarguy]

Yes, Charlie did leave behind a few Alfa's. They are in good hands now. I was thinking a Charlie Thieriot Driver of The Year Award would be appropriate.

[dretceterini]

I just noticed this thread. Why didn't someone give me a phone call...after all, I was involved in the AROSC for 20 years...

I guess I've become persona non grata....

[Norman Silverma]

Sorry no one contacted you, but Charlie Schwartz gave us the obit which we posted at www.arosc.org (our home site) and here on the BB within 24 hours of his passing. Sorry you didn't scroll the page. We had a couple of hundred hits the first few days.

We will have a little memorial for Charlie at our October Time Trial / Race Weekend at Willowsprings and a memorial event and competition at our first event of 2005. Hope to see you joining in.

[dretceterini]

I never go to the AROSC, ARA, or national Alfa site unless I see something here to send me there. I simply missed seeing the notice of Charlie's death.

I was on the board of AROSC for more than 10 years, and knew Charlie pretty well. We got along OK, in spite of the fact we were always on opposite sides when it came to how the club's money should be spent. He felt that since time trials brought in most of the money, then that's where it should be spent. I constantly pointed out that the time trials people only represented 10% of the membership, and it was the club's money.

I decided to have nothing to do with the local club after Gary Patitz left LA and moved to Seattle, and Phyllis Gaylard became newsletter editor. I was doing a lot of writing for the newsletter, but she wouldn't use any of it. I'll admit it; I simply detest the woman, and know a WHOLE BUNCH of ex-club members (both local and national) that feel the same way.

I didn't renew my membership in the national club after Pat Braden went to be the main speaker at the national convention, and half the people didn't even know who he was. There was also the "problem" of a whole lot of money being spent by various national board members on things the members themselves didn't want.

I am FAR from the only one who wants nothing to do with the national club, due to politics...in fact Tina and others wanted the local club to seperate from national almost as much as I did. The majority of the board at that time disagreed.

My interest has always been much more in the history of the cars than any other aspect. More and more over the last 30 years, very few care about the history.

Quite frankly, a substantial part of the Alfa community has become almost as trendy and pretentious as the vast majority of Ferrari owners....the Ferrari owners that can afford them but know absolutely nothing about them. As such, I keep my involvement limited to this BB and various Alfa model registers.

[Slaysman]

Hi Stu:

I think I met you years ago when I first got a 2 Liter Touring Spider & joined the club. Never did much with the club until I did a driving school and then started time trialing & racing, and am now a Board member. I owe a lot of that to Charlie.

We have had lots of discussions about some of the things you bring up. Charlie always had an interesting perspective about the club & time trials money, and in general, I agreed with him. Unfortunately, over the last couple of years, his demon really got the better of him, and he stopped participating on the Board. I really felt bad about that because I think it was one of the things that kept him responsible & functional to a degree. When he no longer had the Board, he seemed to go downhill faster. Then again, I haven't known him as long as many of you.

I have to differ with you about the type of people in the Alfa club - at least the AROSC people who come to the track. Not a pretentious bone in their bodies! Can't speak for the rest of the clubs. We work real hard to make the track events as great as they are. I also don't have any qualms about keeping two accounts - one for TT and one for the club. Crap, I have to listen how we made $1.17 on donuts & lost $3.72 on the raffle at the monthly meeting, and I collect $15,000 to $25,000 per track event. We don't always make money at the track, and sometimes we take a big loss. Our annual budget is 20 to 30 times that of the "club". I believe it was Charlie who insisted on the two separate accounts, and I agree 100%.

The "club" needs a good shot in the arm in my opinion. I don't go to the Friday night meetings because they don't offer much that I am interested in, and there doesn't seem to be a "champion" to make interesting stuff hapen there. Norm is making a difference, but there is a long way to go in my opinion. Charlie was certainly controversial at times, but he always made for interesting times. I am sure that when he was involved with the regular club, it was more fun than today. Who else could ever get that many packs of cigarettes into a briefcase???

[Norman Silverma]

Thanks to Terry for the kind words about my (starting) to make a difference.
I'm a relative short timer in the club (8 years), but have a need (that seems to sometimes transcend common sense) to help prevent the loss of our endangered species. I drive my 65 Spider Veloce everywhere (most recently cruising between 90 and 120 ((as per Richard Beard leading in his Vette)) from Pismo Beach to King City), show it whenever there's an opportunity and put my stock 65 Giulia Ti on the track to drive it the way Alfa designed it to be driven.
Our membership, in the main, covers an area from San Diego to Santa Barbara and our primary effort going forward is variety and inclusiveness in events. For example: We try to alternate Concorsi between LA and Orange County and events vary from a variety of social gatherings to a competition program open to all skill levels. Addressing Terry's comment about the EOM General Meetings, we have an entertainment director and have been putting together more frequent evenings of interest. Bob Mosier, for example, has agreed to a biannual gathering at Mosier Restoration (one of the top 'high end' restoration ateliers in the world) so we can follow the restoration progress of potential Concours d'Elegance winners in progress. After our brief meeting, Bob is available to answer any and all tech or historical questions posed. FYI: One of Mosiers clients has the largest individual collection of pre war Alfa's that we know of. Our goal for next year is an event of significance per General Meeting.
As Paul Blankenship frequently notes in reference to our membership, it takes all kinds of spices to make a tasty stew. I would hope that you would add your spice back into the pot. Reading your post leads me to believe that your divorce from AROSC and AROC and YOUR pretentious attitude is probably the reason you didn't hear from anybody. Life is too short and the opportunity for adventure to great to isolate yourself from it.
If you'd like to get together and hash it out, I'll buy a couple of rounds. Contact me off the bb at normanev@msn.com

[dretceterini]

Norm:

I'm sure we have met, but obviously I don't know you very well. I'm sure your intentions are good, but you can ask Jay Negrin about the conversation I had with him some 10 years ago. Ask any of the Rimiccis about what I said for years about the club. Nothing has changed. Nothing ever will.

It's always been that 2% of the membership winds up doing 100% of the work. That 2% is composed mainly of time trials people; and as such, time trials people wind up being the majority of the AROSC board of directors.

Every time there is a vote, the time trials people get to spend what they want on their agenda, even though they only make up a small percentage of the total membership.

Ask Charlie Schwartz about the time Thieriot tried to punch out Dirk Stoehr at a board meeting at Schwartz's house, over a simple disagreement of how the Time trials money should be spent.

As far as the AROC is concerned, ask people who were around when national almost went bankrupt because certain people were allowed to piss away the club's treasury, and overpay friends to produce the crappy national magazine, and on a new computer system and programing.

Until people like Tom Sutter, Phyllis, Hertzman, and the Garretts are gone, I want nothing to do with any Alfa clubs, either national or local, in the US. After 20 years of non involvement on the national board, Pat Braden, the man who had done the most to promote Alfa Romeo in the US, became a board member. He went to the convention, and 75% of the people didn't even know who he was! The general mebership wanted someone like Pat on the board, but Pat couldn't overcome the cronieism, and left after his term was up.

The kind of Alfa people I much rather associate with are people like Simon Moore, Peter Marshall and Paul Gregory and the sadly deceased Pat Braden, Jack Becronis, Luigi Fussi, and on and on......