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Last
year, RTM introduced an award to honor people… people who write about cars
and trucks… but not just any people. ROAD & TRAVEL
MAGAZINE'S Lifetime Achievement Award is about honoring those who have
achieved a lifetime of outstanding contributions to our industry.
RTM's
2nd annual recipient has done that and more… from covering automakers to
foreign policy makers, from the economy to the fight against communism.
But
mostly Jerry Flint has written prodigiously about the auto industry - for the
Wall Street Journal, New York times, Ward's, the carconnection.com and of course,
Forbes magazine, where he spent over thirty years.
He's
been called everything from curmudgeonly, cantankerous and critical -- to outspoken,
aggressive, and harassing. Some have said that when he quotes "a knowledgeable
industry source," he's probably quoting himself. But nobody has said he doesn't
know the business inside and out. And nobody has accused him of being shy or timid
with either his opinion or with the truth.
This
native Detroiter says he was there when Karl Hahn of Volkswagen taught us to "think
small"…when Ed Cole did the Corvair and Ralph Nader said it was "unsafe
at any speed"…when Bob McNamara rolled out the ford falcon and Lee Iacocca
introduced the mustang and John DeLorean did the GTO and Tom Gale and Bob Lutz
did cab forward then went retro with the PT Cruiser.
He
was also there in 1980 as the first to suggest that Lee Iacocca would save Chrysler,
a thought so outlandish to his editors at Forbes that they led into his article
with a boldface paragraph of their own disclaiming it!
Jerry
Flint, as they say, has been around the block. He's seen it all and reported on
most of it. He is respected, and sometimes feared, and even though he "retired"
in 1996, he still writes six columns a month and continues to reap awards for
his efforts - the Gerald Loeb award in 2003 for his columns at Forbes; the arts
and achievement award from his alma mater, Wayne State University, in 2003, and
a designation as one of the top 100 financial writers of the 20th century by TIFR,
the financial journalist group. |
