Allen Legacy Photo Courtesy of Clayton Homes
What They Do For Fun... by George Allen, CPM Emeritus, MHM-Master
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Do you ever wonder what the celebrity names in manufactured housing do for fun? Here are answers for a couple dozen of them.
Hitting the Road The late Burt Dickman collected antique cars – his best one a 1920s era Cord ‘fresh from the factory’ prototype – complete with a century-old unopened tool kit. Invaluable! Not only that, adjacent to his spacious triple-section manufactured home, Burt constructed a steep 30-foot tall hill with a 50-foot long car tunnel running through it in one direction, and a sliding board tunnel in another direction. The first tunnel emptied onto a dirt road circling a two acre pond in his backyard, showcasing antique iron bridges across a couple streams. The second tunnel was his grandchildren’s slide escape from their bat cave, dumping them into the pond. And out in the middle of the pond was a 7 feet tall lighthouse with a light and fan combination that attracted nighttime flying insects to the light, where
they were blown downward onto the pond surface to feed the fish. Such was Burt — Korean War military veteran, real estate developer, and owner of land lease communities — plus being the former mayor of historic Auburn, Indiana. He will be inducted posthumously into the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, Ind., on Monday, Aug. 16 2021. I’ll be there! Burt’s example motivated me to learn of hobbies and diversions practiced by other land lease community owners and operators, along with other friends in the manufactured housing business. Here's some of what I learned over the years: Everyone knows Don Westphal, landscape architect and consultant hailing from Rochester Hills, Mich. Don, too, is in the antique auto scene. He presently has three 1950s era MGs undergoing restoration, along with a 1939 Ford pickup truck. And charitably, Don is passionate about Leader Dogs for the Blind. Don was inducted into the RV/MH Hall of Fame in 2006. » MHINSIDER.COM | 77
