1970 J. Paul Treen article

[rldebuse]

I found this interesting.

[Ben Treen]

Thanks for that post. I must say that my grandfather would be humbled by all this attention. The "J. Paul" seems to be a recent appellation. He was called "Paul" by everyone except family who knew him. I know that Gary Wollard (who had never met him) referred to him as such, but, to my knowledge, none of his contemporaries did. The seven grandchildren knew him as "Pa-Paul". I probably spent more time with him than the other grandchildren, and have some stories to tell.
Ben Treen, MD

[Ricks]

If you have any literature you could share with us, it would be much appreciated.  I would guess when the simplex factory closed, most of this stuff just got tossed in the trash.

Did you spend any time in the factory as a youngster?

[Ben Treen]

Regrettably, I spent very little time there. I distinctly remember going there twice, although I'm sure I was there more than that. I'll try to get whatever I can from my father. He has the desk. The "legend" is that there were two made, the other was Walter Chrysler's. I think my grandfather acquired it secondarily, though. I have my grandfather's dining room table and chairs, breakfront, and two sets of love seats + paired chairs, among other things. He had a good eye for quality antiques. The dining room table has 14 matching chairs, and was used in the house on St Charles Ave., as well as 5025 St. Bernard Ave.

[Mike Sal]

It's cool that "the desk" is still in the family.  It appears in a lot of the factory booklets & promo photos from back in the day.  Next time I'm in Detroit I'll go back to the chrysler museum to see if there are any photos of Walter at his desk.

We would love to hear some stories about your grandfather & the business.  As rick mentioned, we assumed alot of the files from the business probably got tossed, but if any still exist (engineering records would be a gold mine of information), we'd love to find a way to publish them.
thanks,
Mike Sal

[Ben Treen]

One quick story while I'm between patient appointments. I used to spend weekends with my grandparents (quite a bit, undoubtedly more than any of the other 6 grandchildren). Once on a Saturday PaPaul and I were watching motorcycle racing, and he derisively said, "Look at them putting their foot down in the curves. When I was racing, that was considered 'sissy'." When I said they were probably going a bit faster he immediately retorted,"Oh no, they're not going any faster than we were." I still laugh about that.
We played a lot of pool together, in his later years I would pick him up and we played at the Round Table Club on St. Charles Ave. next to Audubon Park. If there were other players, we would play as a team. The Treens would play against anyone. I still have the cue he kept at the Club.

[kartjockey]

Ben, you can tell me stories like this until the cows come home! I have good memories of my grandpa as well.

Tom