Looking Aft

Thanksgiving at the Club

GPYC YACHT SHOT DINNER

By Carol Stephenson

Ladies’ golf at the GPYC was formalized in 1997 as the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club Yacht Shots, and every year since then, the end of the season has been celebrated with cocktails and dinner at the Club. It has become tradition to invite both present golfers and alumni to these dinners, and this year was no exception. Dinner was enjoyed in the Lakeshore Room followed by two lively rounds of Left-Center-Right to top the evening. Marney Ramsey has led the group since its formation and is presently on board to lead once again into the 2022 season. The league plays 18 holes at Sycamore Hills every Tuesday morning, June through September. If you are interested in learning more about the Yacht Shots, contact Ladies Golf Chair Marney Ramsey at msramsey1@comcast.net

Seated L-R: Rosemary Hastings, Marney Ramsey, Priscilla Schaupeter, Kathy Neuman, Bunny Rentschler, Nancy Collins; Standing L-R: Julie Storen, Prudie Marcinak, Alyssa Mertz, Mary Lamparter, Dianna Smith, Carol Stephenson

GPYC Member Featured in 40 Under 40 List

GPYC member Wadette Bradford was featured on Crain’s Detroit Business’s 2021 40 Under 40 list. Being featured on the list is a huge honor for metro Detroiters, as the list only features the best of the best: changemakers, lawmakers, and leaders in the community. The list has been published annually since 1991.

Wadette is a Dealer Network Diversity & Investments Manager for Stellantis N.V. (the parent company of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands). She was recruited by Stellantis to grow the company’s Dealer Market Investment Program, which assists high-potential minority candidates pursue their aspirations of owning the company’s dealerships. Stellantis is now ranked No. 2 in minority-owned dealerships for the U.S. automotive industry. On her proudest career achievement thus far, Wadette says, “sourcing and developing a relationship with Live Oak Bank, the nation’s largest SBA lender, to support our minority dealer initiatives. The relationship was the foundation to ensuring all our dealers had real-time access to government funding during the pandemic. Additionally, first-time minority entrepreneurs are able to become dealers leveraging access to funds that grew from a relationship with Stellantis into an industry- leader for minority dealers across the automotive industry.” In the future, Wadette hopes to expand the Stellantis Dealer Network Diversity scope, and advance into senior-level management to achieve a seat at the table as a cognitive diversity thought-leader to provide necessary input into the company’s decision making process.

“Receiving the prestigious Crain’s recognition is absolutely phenomenal and it is a North Star on my journey that was set in motion by my mentor, Ellenae Fairhurst, the owner of the first-ever African American woman-owned Lexus dealership in the country,” Wadette says. “I choose to dedicate this award to her. She launched my career and now I help others dream bigger and find success within their passions. Mrs. Fairhurst gave me the foundation for my success with my first management job for which I will be eternally grateful.” We are honored to have her as a member of the GPYC. Congratulations Wadette!

Our members representing the GPYC at the Lauderdale Yacht Club.

Lauderdale International Boat Show Rendezvous

Several GPYC members head down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, each fall to attend the Lauderdale International Boat Show. This year, a large group attended and was able to visit the newly remodeled Lauderdale Yacht Club after the show for cocktails and dinner. Thank you to LYC for hosting the GPYC.

A Towering Achievement

By Past Commodore James L. Ramsey

According to legend, the Club’s most striking physical feature grew from a series of rough sketches by Boston architect Frank Lowell depicting a Mediterranean-style clubhouse with a tall campanile, or bell tower, that would overlook Lake St. Clair. The distinctiveness of the idea was enough to win Lowell the assignment of designing the new home of the GPYC. But fate intervened. An accomplished ocean sailor, Lowell died at sea just 18 days after getting the nod. The job of executing Mr. Lowell’s conceptual thinking fell to two associates, Ralph Henry and Henry Richmond, who traveled to Grosse Pointe and were immediately struck by the flatness of the terrain. They both agreed that Lowell’s tower should stay as a strong vertical element in the design of the Clubhouse to contrast with the horizontal topography and also serve as a navigational aid on the lake. And so, as the Clubhouse arose, so did its massive tower, eventually achieving a height of 187 feet.

Being a bell tower, it of course needed a bell. But as Clubhouse construction progressed, it became quickly apparent that euphoric cost estimates and construction overruns were putting the entire project in jeopardy. At first, planners elected to postpone the installation of the bell until after the Clubhouse was completed, but soon realized that the cost of a retro-fit would put even more financial strain on the project. The decision was made to purchase a bell from one of the nation’s most respected bell makers, the Meneely Company of Watervliet, New York, whose creations hung in such famed locations as Independence Hall, West Point and aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, aka “Old Ironsides.”

Meneely’s bell for the Club was imposing: five feet high, five inches thick, weighing more than two tons. And its $4,000 price tag in 1929 was equally imposing. But urgent phone calls to well-heeled members produced the needed funds. The bell was soon hoisted into position in the skeletal tower. It was, however, installed without a remotecontrolled clapper. Thus, to ring it, someone would have to scramble Quasimodo-like nearly 200 dizzying feet up the belfry and strike it with a mallet. It stayed that way for nearly 40 years until a complicated system of gears, cams and electromagnetic relays was added for remote control; but even then, the device worked sporadically, if at all. In 2002, under the guidance of Com. George Kriese, an electronically controlled striking device was introduced, finally allowing the bell to ring automatically. Then-Commodore Carl Rashid convened a special gathering in the courtyard to hear it peal for the first time. The bell still reliably tolls ship’s time today. A year later, the tower received another needed improvement. The original red light at the top emitted about as much illumination as a clown’s nose – barely enough to warn unsuspecting aircraft and all but invisible to boaters. Then-Harbor Committee Chairman Dr. Federico Mariona stepped up and paid for a modern, more intense flashing light to be installed in its place. The light still flashes from the tip of the tower, providing a welcome beacon for mariners at night on the lake.

For more information on the bell tower, see page 35 of the GPYC Centennial Book.