[DeTomaso] Happy 80th birthday Tom!

[John Taphorn]

Mike and Lori - You guys are living large!!.  What a terrific experience.

JT
On 7/23/2014 1:47 PM, Mike Drew via DeTomaso wrote:
>     Hi guys,
>     Astoundingly, today is Tom Tjaarda's 80th birthday!  You would never
>     know it by looking at him!
>     Just got home after almost a month touring Europe.  Although the
>     initial inspiration was the Le Mans Classic tour (another epic job by
>     Charlie, and Scott Couchman produced an outstanding video overview,
>     literally, as he used a quad-copter for much of it!), Lori and I
>     decided to make it a belated honeymoon and continued our travels
>     through France, Italy and Switzerland, visiting a few Pantera folks
>     along the way.
>     As we would be passing through Turin (Torino), I pinged Tom Tjaarda and
>     asked if he'd perhaps like to get together for lunch or something?  He
>     responded that he'd like to spend a day with us, and would give us a
>     private tour of the new Torino Auto Museum!  He then further responded
>     and invited us to his home for dinner with his wife afterwards.
>     So, we had a terrific day together, starting with meeting him in his
>     lovely office, located in a centuries-old apartment just off the Via
>     Roma (Torino's center of town, a Rodeo Drive-kind of street).  After
>     giving us a look at some of his drawings and designs, and spending a
>     fair amount of time admiring his spectacular collection of large-scale
>     radio controlled aircraft, we jumped in his car and he took us on a
>     drive through and out of the city, up into the surrounding hills, where
>     we eventually wound up at a basilica overlooking the city.
>     After returning to retrieve our car, we followed him home.  He owns a
>     fantastic apartment that he remodelled himself (although somewhat
>     formally trained in automotive design, his actual degree was in
>     architecture), which he actually bought from Pietro Frua, one of the
>     leading car designers and coachbuilders of the 1950s and 1960s.
>     His wife Paula (pronounced POW-la in Italian) speaks little English,
>     but she was enormously friendly and welcoming, and screwed together a
>     fantastic multi-course dinner for us which lasted well past midnight!
>     I was amazed at Tom's continued energy and passion for life.  It's
>     amazing to consider that today he turns 80 years old!
>     While we were together, he told me that the University of Michigan in
>     Ann Arbor has selected him to receive their Distinguished Alumnus Award
>     for 2014, and they are preparing a major exibition of his various works
>     at the Architecture campus.  He will be presenting a slide show and
>     talk on the 26th of September, and all are invited.  If you are in the
>     area, you owe it to yourself to go!
>     Perhaps Great Lakes Panteras could be convinced to fire up the welcome
>     wagon and throw Tom a welcome party of some sort?
>     Cheers!
>     Miike
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA
>
> DeTomaso mailing list
> DeTomaso at poca.com
> http://poca.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso_poca.com

-------------- next part --------------
   Mike and Lori - You guys are living large!!.  What a terrific
   experience.
   JT

   On 7/23/2014 1:47 PM, Mike Drew via DeTomaso wrote:

   Hi guys,
   Astoundingly, today is Tom Tjaarda's 80th birthday!  You would never
   know it by looking at him!
   Just got home after almost a month touring Europe.  Although the
   initial inspiration was the Le Mans Classic tour (another epic job by
   Charlie, and Scott Couchman produced an outstanding video overview,
   literally, as he used a quad-copter for much of it!), Lori and I
   decided to make it a belated honeymoon and continued our travels
   through France, Italy and Switzerland, visiting a few Pantera folks
   along the way.
   As we would be passing through Turin (Torino), I pinged Tom Tjaarda and
   asked if he'd perhaps like to get together for lunch or something?  He
   responded that he'd like to spend a day with us, and would give us a
   private tour of the new Torino Auto Museum!  He then further responded
   and invited us to his home for dinner with his wife afterwards.
   So, we had a terrific day together, starting with meeting him in his
   lovely office, located in a centuries-old apartment just off the Via
   Roma (Torino's center of town, a Rodeo Drive-kind of street).  After
   giving us a look at some of his drawings and designs, and spending a
   fair amount of time admiring his spectacular collection of large-scale
   radio controlled aircraft, we jumped in his car and he took us on a
   drive through and out of the city, up into the surrounding hills, where
   we eventually wound up at a basilica overlooking the city.
   After returning to retrieve our car, we followed him home.  He owns a
   fantastic apartment that he remodelled himself (although somewhat
   formally trained in automotive design, his actual degree was in
   architecture), which he actually bought from Pietro Frua, one of the
   leading car designers and coachbuilders of the 1950s and 1960s.
   His wife Paula (pronounced POW-la in Italian) speaks little English,
   but she was enormously friendly and welcoming, and screwed together a
   fantastic multi-course dinner for us which lasted well past midnight!
   I was amazed at Tom's continued energy and passion for life.  It's
   amazing to consider that today he turns 80 years old!
   While we were together, he told me that the University of Michigan in
   Ann Arbor has selected him to receive their Distinguished Alumnus Award
   for 2014, and they are preparing a major exibition of his various works
   at the Architecture campus.  He will be presenting a slide show and
   talk on the 26th of September, and all are invited.  If you are in the
   area, you owe it to yourself to go!
   Perhaps Great Lakes Panteras could be convinced to fire up the welcome
   wagon and throw Tom a welcome party of some sort?
   Cheers!
   Miike


_______________________________________________

Detomaso Forum Managed by POCA

DeTomaso mailing list
[1]DeTomaso at poca.com
[2]http://poca.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso_poca.com

References

   1. mailto:DeTomaso at poca.com
   2. http://poca.com/mailman/listinfo/detomaso_poca.com