CLUB HISTORY

The Spirit of St. Louis Region of the Classic Car Club of America was founded by a small circle of car enthusiasts in 1984 spearheaded by Joel Haffner and Earl Rosen.  The name of our Region pays tribute to Charles Lindbergh's historic non-stop transatlantic flight from New York to Paris in a single engine monoplane christened the "Spirit of St. Louis", so named to honor Lindbergh's financial supporters in St. Louis.

The idea of establishing a local region had its origins in the Fall of 1959 in a meeting at the home of Charlie Seewoster in St. Louis.  In attendance were eight men, among them Earl Rosen, Fred Summers, Joe Felberbaum and Maury Weinstein. Rosen was named Director, and the other attendees were assigned a function within the fledgling club, and each contributed $3.00 as membership dues to the secretary-treasurer. While the attempt to form a new region gained the support of twenty-four members, the effort proved to be unsuccessful due to unforeseen circumstances.  A subsequent attempt to form a CCCA region in 1967 met with the same result.

A period of seventeen years would elapse until Joel Haffner, who had joined the National CCCA in 1979, believed, as did Earl Rosen, that the time had come for St. Louis to support its own region. In January 1984, Haffner held a meeting at his home with twenty-eight other interested individuals, a meeting that would prove to be pivotal in the club's formation in that the National CCCA now recognized St. Louis as a provisional region.  

PAST SSR DIRECTORS

1985 - Joel Haffner*
1986/87 - Don Hoelscher*
1988/89 - Earl Rosen*
1990/91 - Fred Weber
1992/93 - Marty Luepker
1994/95 - Gene Luning*
1996 - Brice Forgy*
1997/98/99 - Fred Guyton*
2000/01 - Allan Franz
2002/03/04 - Richard Quick
2005/06/07 - Joel Haffner*
2008/09/10 - Wendell Smith
2011/12 - Don Hoelscher*
2013/14 - Jim Schloeman
2015/16 - Shannon Olson
2017/18/19/20/21/22 - John J Lowell 
2023 - Larry Hassel

*Deceased

During that year more meetings, driving tours and social events took place and membership grew to thirty-five members.

At long last, at the CCCA National Annual Meeting in January 1985, the Spirit of St.Louis Region was presented its charter as a full fledged region of the Classic Car Club of America. Fittingly, Joel Haffner was elected our Region's first Director.