[DeTomaso] Jacques Littlefield has passed away

[MikeLDrew at aol.com]

Hi guys,

That name won't mean much to most of you.   Jacques was a fascinating 
character in the silicon valley area, who was fantastically rich, and completely 
fascinated with tanks and armored vehicles.   He never served a day in the 
military yet was a highly regarded military scholar.

He put his money to work and amassed the largest private collection of tanks 
and armored vehicles in the world--over 150 in all.   They were housed in a 
purpose-built collection of buildings on his 482 acre ranch in the hills 
overlooking Stanford and the silicon valley.   (That land is probably worth a million 
bucks an acre or more).

He also had a fully equipped tank restoration shop on-site with a team of 
full-time employees (6-8 of them I think?) who restored derelict vehicles to 
Pebble Beach standards.   One of them was the son of a former PCNC president, and 
through that connection, PCNC members were able to get private tours of the 
collection on a couple of occasions.

Jacques was extremely friendly and personable and welcomed us warmly to his 
museum.   He will be missed.   We have to hope that the collection will 
continue to exist--apparently it is endowed somehow.   Many of his vehicles were used 
by Hollywood;   if you look at the photos you will recognize the giant German 
halftrack as the one driven by Lee Marvin in "The Dirty Dozen"; he also 
contributed to "Saving Private Ryan" and countless other projects.

Here's a link to a thread on a Warbird website, which in turn has links to 
various photo collections etc.

http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=262616#262616

Mike


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