I met him a number of times myself, back in the days when I was working full time for car magazines. I spent a few days with him on the Delmar Peninsula back in 1980 at a Volkswagen launch. He had a trendously intelligent dry wit and could entertain the whole table at dinner. I remember the tiff with GM. Interestingly enough, he was once an ad guy himself. In fact he was Creative Director on the Chevrolet business at Campbell Ewald. Paul
Mike Johnston wrote: > I had the pleasure of meeting David E. once--went to his home in Ann Arbor > to inspect some of his antique view cameras. He founded _Automobile_ after > leaving _C&D_ because he said he didn't know any other way to make a lot of > money. > > He's a principled guy, though--once in the early years of _Automobile_ when > it was still struggling he published a review of a GM car that was a bit too > sarcastic for them, and they threatened to take their advertising and walk > if he didn't watch himself. He told them to take their advertising and shove > it up their asses. They pulled all their advertising. It came at a bad time > and very nearly sunk the magazine--which survived in the end, despite big > bad old bully GM. I've always admired the chutzpah that took. > > --Mike
