The tatty, rather bedraggled cover of the book shown below is not as a result of it being discarded and binned. Rather the inverse, in fact – the tattered, well-pawed cover of the book reflects the number of people to whom I have loaned it, and who have devoured it from front cover to back.
Although maybe out of print now (I bought this copy directly from Mercury Marine in Australia when I arrived in 1996 for, I think, the princely sum of $20), it was written by the eminent, talented and extremely accomplished marine historian (and a Pulitzer Prize winner to boot), Jeffrey L. Rodengen.
The book chronicles the life and not-for-one-second-boring times of Carl Kiekhaefer, the founder of Mercury Marine. Whilst the book has heavy marine content, it is not a marine publication per se; it provides great insight into the psyche and iron-willed foresight and tenacity (and possibly dogged stubbornness) of an industrial titan, and how his autocratic and maybe even dogmatic management characteristics drove his company and key employees to unimaginable heights. It could be posited that Kiekhaefer was a despot, but he was most definitely a genius.
Among a wealth of information, the book provides fascinating insight into a) Carl’s visceral loathing of his arch-enemy OMC (Johnson/Evinrude), b) who really invented the sterndrive (and it wasn’t Jim Wynne, who got all the fame – and the royalties!), and c) Carl’s interminable, highly acrimonious battles with the Brunswick hierarchy of that era after he’d sold them the company.
A less well-known but no less fascinating section of the book details Carl’s clean-sweep involvement in NASCAR for two full seasons (1955 and 1956), where he ran the first quasi-factory team – down to purpose-built racecar transporters, corporate uniforms and meticulously orchestrated pit stops (pic below). Bill France (the NASCAR chief) hated him; so did famed rule-bender and mechanic Smokey Yunick, as did the good ole boys with (at that time) their hick, nascent teams.
And a little known fact about Kiekhaefer is that he (along with his famed 2IC and later rival, Charlie Strang, when Charlie went to run OMC) was responsible for the invention the paper air filter for automobiles (replacing the then-ubiquitous, cumbersome oil bath cleaner), which became the de rigueur method of air filtration until the carburetor era ended.
The same author, Jeff Rodengen, also wrote “The Legend of Evinrude and Johnson”, which was an excellent book as well, but more a chronology and timeline of OMC’s products – unlike “Iron Fist”, it was not a biographical chronicle of a driven, complex and demanding perfectionist. In my opinion, this Kiekhaefer book is as good (if not better) a read than a biography of the likes of Henry Ford, Enzo Ferrari, W.O Bentley or Howard Hughes – it depicts how a man and his company can be so intertwined and so inseparable that a parting of the ways could never be amicable.
Danny Casey is highly experienced, undoubtedly idiosyncratic, and immensely knowledgeable about things mechanical, new or old. His knowledge and passion are as a result of spending his whole life in or around anything power-driven – especially marine engines. His passion for boating is second to none, with his life a montage of fabulous memories from decades spent in or around water and boats, both here and in Europe. Danny has spent myriad years in the recreational marine industry in a varied career in which he has bamboozled colleagues and competitors alike with his well-honed insight.
His mellifluous Irish accent, however, has at times been known to become somewhat less intelligible in occasional attempts at deliberate vagueness or when trying to prevent others from proffering a counter-argument or even getting a word in. Frank and to-the-point, but with a heart of gold, it can be hard to convince Danny to put pen to paper to share his knowledge. Marine Business News is grateful for his contributions. Connect with Danny through LinkedIn.
