Re: Mercury marine history.

[20mercman]

quote labrador guy:

I need to get my two cents in on this tread. I hope your daughter is old enough to understand Elmer’s dark side. His name is Elmer, in the fifty’s he changed it to Carl because he thought “Elmer” was beneath him. When you read “Iron Fist” you will be amazed at the changes in emotions the reader will have. This guy put work first always, family last. One chapter you will be laughing and the next crying. His dealings with his family, in my opinion, is so sad. His dealings with his son Freddy made me quit reading for awhile. I think his engineering people were the real reason for the success of the product that they produced. Engineers did things behind Elmer’s back to put out a good product but that is a whole different story. Family is the important thing in anyone’s life. Pursuit of the almighty dollar is somewhere down the line.

dale

I too was taken aback by reading on how Carl treated his family. especially his wife! It made it hard to respect the guy when he had so many character flaws. Then you read about how when he heard that one of his employees daughters was resigned to let pass from anorexia, (It wasn’t called that then,) He offered to fly her to Rochester Mn., but she was too weak to fly, they would have to drive. At that he purchased a new Pontiac station wagon with the largest engine and told the guy to go pick it up and drive her to Mayo. She survived and is still with us today.

In the book, it was when they were getting an "E" award from the army for saw motor production during WWII when they introduced "Carl Kiekhaefer". His wife was looking around, "Who’s Carl?" From that point on, he was Carl, not Elmer. A real enigma…..