From Out of the Past
Photos courtesy Don Armacost , Jr .
AOAI member ( whose auto museum was the site of the 2016 international meet banquet ) Don Armacost ’ s granddad was a Studebaker dealer . Robert S . Armacost originally hailed from Cincinnati where he first invested in an already operating Studebaker dealership . Three years later , he became a Studebaker distributor in Indianapolis and another three years on , now 1929 / 30 , he relocated to Kansas City as a dealer / master distributor .
We only know the identity of two men in each photo with the 1952 Pikes Peak hillclimb pace car on a visit to KC ; the dapper white-haired , bow-tied Robert Shaw Armacost and his son Robert S . ( but not a junior as his middle name was Schnicke ), at far left kneeling , looking toward his dad in photo on right and kneeling directly in front of his dad in the other image .
The Greenlease O ’ Neill Oldsmobile dealership — still in business to this day — was across the street from Armacost Motors . You ’ ll find similar period pictures of another Indianapolis dealership on pages 12-13 inside . ( hvh )
2 AVANTI Magazine Spring / Summer 2021 Issue 194