Jack Leek: Boat Racer Passes On

[Ron Hill]

In '68 Jack helped promote a 225 mile race in Miami...In July. He had been to California that spring, and had told me he wanted to have a Curcuit for Single Engine Outboards. He drew out his plans on a napkin... He'd planned races in Seattle, Chicago, New York, Texas, Arizona, and Florida...

Believe it or not, when Jack talked, I listened...

Anyway, it was July 1968 and I headed to Miami with Paul Drake and Ted May. We were pulling a 16 foot hydro that Ted had scaled up from a Sid Craft....

Anyway, we got to Miami, like Tuesday before the race. I'm not sure how it happened but Jack, Jim Wagner and myself went to dinner.

I was really a California...beer drinking, surfer....Jack took Jim and me to a MAFIA HANG OUT. I had heard the words MAFIA..... But in Califronia I had never seen "GANGSTERS". We went to some place with Coconuts and Palm Trees....Miami was hotter than hell in the summer, but this place had cool air conditioning...We had a "FOO FOO drink" or two, like a Mai Tai...then had martini's...

I'll admit, I didn't know if any of those people were MAFIA, but they wore some EXPENSIVE cloths.....and Jack said thery were!

I happen to ask Jack, how he got in the boat business... He got that look that only Jack could get....and kind of swolled...and smiled...

Well, he said, I used to hang out with this guy who was HANDSOME as hell... He always seemed to have lots of money and more women than he could handle. He had a house in Tahoe and frequently invited me to come and spend a week or two with him...

This guy was a FLY FISHING NUT and had met a guy at a FISHING Showing, and he had invited this guy to come to Tahoe and go fishing with him... He was supposed to be there like Thursday night and Jack had planned to leave Firday morning...

Anyway, Jack's friend, and Jack didn''t know this, flew GOLD into the United States and sold it to jewelry stores, as owning GOLD in the United States wasn't legal then....

Well, Jack was basically packing his clothes to head back to Tacoma, Washington, when a man came to the door, and handed Jack a card from the FBI...

Jack invited the guy in, as he said he'd come to go fishing....and Jack didn't think anything about it...and took his card. Jack's friend was taking a shower, and Jack just kind of opened th bathroom door and layed the card in the bathroom...

Well, JAck's friend took about an hour to come out of the shower, which Jack thought was "STRANGE", but when he finally came out the two shook hands...

Jack left the next morning at 5, when the guys went fishing...

Now, Jack said, while his friend, which I always thought was BURT ROSS, and the guy from the FBI went up trout fishing, the guy from the FBI told his firend, He said, "You KNOW people who bring GOLD in to the United States aren't really hurting anybody, maybe avoiding taxes...but there are guy who are COUNTERFITTING 100 dollar bills and these guys were really bad for the AMERICAN economy and could REALLY hurt the country........This FBI agent told Jack's friend, up on top of a mountain, by a camp fire, (No tape recorders)..."If you'll give me your word you won't bring anymore gold in to this country...I can take my 20 men and go after these counterfitters"....becasue, we are going to get you!!!

Jack said, Tuesday morning, after that weekend, his friend showed up at his house and told him that when he saw the card form the FBI agent, he seriously tried to figure if he could get out the bathroom window...He said he was now OUT of the GOLD BUSINESS and how would he like to go in to the boat business??"

I know Burt Ross played college football and was a SERIOUS STUD for looks...I know he was jack's brother-in-law...

This story made sense to me....

[Skoontz]

In 1974, Carl Sirn's Marine, in Aurora, Illinois, of whch my dad was service manager, won the first Gold service award ever given in the state of Illinois. The owner, Mr's Sirn, a German lady in her 80's, widow of Carl Stirn, and her daughter, Hlen, and son in law, Chris, and my dad were there to recive the award after service school. The award was given to Mrs. Stirn, and the daughter and son in law were gloating....After the thing had settled down and people started leaving, Lou Eppel accompanied by Jack Leek and Paul Johnson walked over to dad, and told him the largest part of winning that award was from the service he had provided to customers the preceeding year. Dad will ahve been gone 30 years next September, and every time I hear some name he mentioned from the past, such as Jack Leek, it makes me miss him that much more. I kknow this is about Jack, but the lives he touched extend far beyond those he saw every day or week, the extend to those of us who nevermet him, and only see him as the legend he was in his own time.

[Ron Hill]

We were in in the Paris Hilton bar, 1970, when Bob McCullough came in the bar and said he'd just bought the London Bridge and was moving it to Lake Havasu City...I told him, "Hell, I'd have sold you the Eiffiel Tower for less than a million..."

Bob McCullough Jr, and Sr, loved Boat Racing...

[Ted March]

Carl Stirn's Marine was my Johnson dealer from 1978 till 1986 when we moved from the western suburbs of Chicago to NJ. Chris, Helen and Mom were all good people. Viisited them once in my travels since 1986. Never met your dad. Must have just missed him.

[Skoontz]

Ted:

Dad had left in 1977, he was disabled from emphysema, having asthema and smoking never went well together. Mrs. Stirn died in 1999, she was pushing 100. Chris, still the same, as is Helen, and now all the kids, Dale, Kerry and Greg have taken slots that many others filled. If you ever saw dad you would have known, big guy, big as a house, with this ho ho ho kind of laugh and always had nasty joke to tell. He was service manager there until the time he had to leave.

[Ted March]

for the reply. Brings back a lot of memories.

[MN1]

Greg in his SST 60 boat.
Mark Nelson

[Skoontz]

Boat 640, and Carl Stirn's Marine located at 640 N Broadway, Aurora, Illinois.

Cool! Now a Merc dealer...Disgusting! Carl would roll in his grave, but what choices did they have....

[Ron Hill]

Ran across this picture from Parker 1972, I think...Left to right: Ron Hill, Fred hauenstein, Ted May, Jimbo McConnell, Barry Woods, Mike Wallace...

Wallace and I got second, can't recall what Freddy and Barry got...

Freddy will be at an Offshore Race, Ted isn't doing too well health wise, Barry has to fly somewhere...Mike Wallace could show up if anyone contacted him...He was at Coberly Memorial...

Jimbo and I will be at the Memorial for Jack...

[Starflite]

I remember Jack as a kind man. I wrote to him several years and he got right back to me.

I called Jack about three months ago, and asked about the four point hydros he designed and Wilbur McDonald built...Jack drew me cool little plans and sent them to me.. I really wanted to see him this summer...I planned to look him up after the Stock Outboard Nationals at Moses Lake, Washington.

What are your plans for these?