Two of Harry’s creations, a custom car carrying the sculpture “Fission Man”, c. 1970. Photo by Gary Whitehorse
Harry was fascinated by cars his entire life. One day when he was around 13, his uncle and mentor, George Seymour, told him that if he could drive his Ford Model T home, Harry could keep the car. Harry had never driven and couldn’t figure out how to shift the gears, so in his usual way, he adapted to the circumstances by driving the car to their home – in reverse.
Harry owned and operated Chief Auto Body for well over 30 years in Monona, Wisconsin. Throughout his life, Harry loved messing around with cars (and race cars, but that’s another story). He admired the Cord and customized an El Camino to look like one. Harry’s son Greg remembers, ” His custom cars were never meant to be ‘show’ cars. They were meant to be driven. Logged many miles on them. The “Cord” was a pickup truck (think El Camino-ish), and was used as a parts chaser for the body shop. The ‘57 Chevy was just fun to drive. Others I remember were; the “Rolls”, the pickup he made from the old Chrysler, the Pontiac dune buggy (which was ridiculous) and a bobbed VW Beetle. And the camper. May have been others.”
Sometime in the 1950s, Alex Jordan, the eccentric builder of House on the Rock, had Harry create a car on a truck chassis. Being the promoter that he was, Alex Jordan made up a fantastic story about that car – that he bought it from a royal prince or something like that. Harry is listed in the wiki Kustomrama, “the traditional rod and custom encyclopedia”.
Deb Whitehorse