After I got out of the Army in 1966, I went back to work for a guy named Ed Wills. I'd worked for him in 1962. For a time, I helped on his racing crew (not connected to my work) doing general things like changing in & out warm up plugs, warming up the engines, pushing his boat around in the water, hauling it to & from events, etc. He held the quarter mile for drag boats for a while, & his wife held the women's record for a while also. He also raced funny cars later on. At the time, he told me his boat (Sanger hull & Chrysler provided hemis built by Keith Black) was worth $10K. He was one of my adult male models in life. He had a friendly, inclusiveness to his personality while requiring accurate, hard work. Last time I saw him in around 1989, I told him he was a role model for me, which pleased him a lot. Here is a picture of me pushing his boat around.
