I was sitting in Rules Restaurant London in September (where the head chef David Stafford (7483) is an OC) with my nephew Brad Ellis (9616) when I took a sad call from the daughter of Michael Gregg (4272).

I originally met Michael Gregg and his lovely wife Freda at the very first OC Americas Branch Dinner, in Las Vegas. Michael and Freda continued to attend and participate in the branch dinner’s across America. One thing all the wives enjoyed at the dinners was hearing their husbands reminisce about their old school days. After dinner each OC would rise one after the other and tell one experience from their school days. Michael’s was probably one of, if not the best, so I shall recount.

Michael started out reminiscing about the old Scirocco works and then transferring out to Nebraska with Goodyear. He then progressed to his most fond memory of school. One day he had the idea as a budding engineer that he wanted to build a rocket, so with other pupils he did. Unfortunately a teacher found out about what they had done and commandeered the rocket. The army was called and took it away to Scotland. The teacher had forgotten about the incident when a few days later the army called and asked about the boys and what their intention had been. The teacher said they had merely wanted to see if they could build a rocket and fire it into the sky. The army officer replied that they took it away to Scotland, fired it and indeed it went up, the problem was it kept going up and travelled over 12 miles! Lord knows where it could have come down if fired from the school grounds. Michael admitted he had given no thought to how far it could travel or where it would come down, never mind the damage it could have done. The army suggested the budding engineer was discouraged strongly from building any more rockets. Thankfully this did not discourage Michael.

Michael is also in the National Inventors Hall of Fame many of which are still used today in NASCAR racing.

We went to Campbell generations apart, but are kindred spirits, and I shall miss him at the dinners and his phone calls.

It was my pleasure Michael.

Mark Smith (6265)

Michael was a mechanical engineer for Goodyear. His job took him all over the world, and he was blessed in that he loved what he did. He moved his family to the United States in 1983 where he continued his career with Goodyear producing many patents, collaborating with NASCAR, and being inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame as a corporate inventor. After retirement, he continued tinkering with cars and staying active in the Flatwater British Car Club and as a docent at the Speedway Museum.