Wallace Lench's Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild Napoleonic Coach
(click the image to go back)
In 1931 fifteen year-old Wallace Lench of Flint Michigan
assembled and entered the coach featured here. Because
this model was built from kit parts and shows very little,
if any scratchbuilding, it wasn't a contender for the
top awards. But in 1933, when Mr. Lench was about seventeen
or eighteen years-old, it served as his three-dimensional
resume. He went to Chevrolet Manufacturing looking for
work, when they asked, "What can you do?", he
showed them the model and said, "I built this."
Recocognizing what the model was and represented they
hired him as an apprentice die-maker. After graduating
from the second apprentice class of 1936, he spent forty
more years there, until his retirement in 1976, as a Journeyman
die-maker.
John Jacobus recently purchased the model through an
on-line auction and after contacting the Lench family
had the model authenticated by Mr. Lench's widow, Genevieve.
She recognized a bit of minor damage done when the coach
was dropped in the mid-1950s.