The other half to this "dynamic duo" is Ward Morrill.  Ward also grew up in Michigan, where he spent much of his younger years dreaming of, playing with, running in, and racing cars.  His love and appreciation of cars has not diminished but has instead grown and flourished even to present days.  He met his wife, Dianne (afore mentioned in Part I) during his years of drag racing.  She would accompany him and help as "pit crew" or was at the least his cheerleader.  I guess you could say she provided good "Morrill" support.  Sorry really bad joke.  He competed with various cars of the 60's and 70's, which are really the cars that catch his eye now and still hold fond places in his heart.  He likes most older cars, but has a strong prejudice for cars from mid-1950's to early 1970's.  Like most old car enthusiasts, he states that he enjoys the older cars because they have so much more character than newer cars and they bring back memories of great times of the past.

     Ward has learned, as many of us have, that the old car hobby requires time, money, and space.  Alot of time, alot of money, and alot of space actually.  Adding to the problem of requiring time, money, and space, is the fact that Ward, like many of us, finds himself interested in a variety of different cars, makes and models.  Not having the time, money, or space needed to collect a car of each make and model which he finds interesting, Ward found an alternative of sorts.  He would collect miniatures of the cars he finds appealing.  The miniature scale cars take up much less space, require less money to purchase, and require less time to work on and maintain.  This plan is all well and good unless it becomes overwhelming in itself.  Ward now has a serious collection of most make, model, color machine ever made.  When asked how many cars he now has in his collection, he stated, "well actually I don't have the list completed yet for all of them but several thousand I would say."  Ward has taken his hobby of collecting scale cars and has turned it into a successful business.  I think out of necessity to help pay for all those he collects.  He sells various scale cars for all those who enjoy and collect scale automobiles. 

     Besides the scale cars, Ward and Dianne do own a nice pair of real classic cars also.  The 1958 DeSoto, which was featured in Part I of this article and a 1959 Studebaker Silver Hawk.  They purchased the Hawk about 19 years ago and have felt heartaches and joy during these years of ownership.  It is next to impossible to write a story about this car and not at least mention its adventure of being lost and found.  A few years ago, while resting in a local mechanic's garage, someone decided that they deserved the Hawk more than Ward and his family did.  Yes that it correct, the car was stolen.  Through a long story and alot of tears and searching, the car was actually found.  It had been taken to Mexico and had actually been used ,or should I say abused, by a small Mexican police department.  When Ward saw his car again, he found that someone had helped themselves to the car's new battery, removed one of the tailfins, (yes they actually took a fin off the car) and damaged or had taken various pieces of it.  Apparently they used the car to play "Dukes of Hazzard" and drove it until it stopped running.  Ward managed to bring the Hawk home to sit in his garage, where he would look at it with a nauseous feeling in his stomach, trying to decide where to begin or where to go from here.  He did decide to redo the car and has managed to rebuild it and get it back to healthy condition.

     The Studebaker is a two door 1959 Silver Hawk, dressed in all black exterior and a red interior.  It is powered by a 259 cubic inch V8 with a Powerpack 4 barrel carburetor and run through dual exhausts.  Sounds like it would be fun to jump a few canals in Mexico, don't you think?  It is driven through a 4 speed, close ratio transmission and the rearend houses 3:73 gears.  There were a little over 5,000 of these cars built in 1959, so it is a fairly rare car and shows even more how fortunate Ward is to have gotten the car back.

     The next time you are out at an old car event and see Ward or Dianne out with their cars, stop by and say hello.  They will be more than happy to show you their cars and visit with you.  I am sure you will share a greater appreciation for them, especially for the Hawk, now knowing what all it has been through.  - L. Olsen