I will always remember Chris as one of the two best PA announcers I heard in my almost 60 years of watching races. (The other was Ken Squire.) There would be a 5 or 6 car heat on the track, all strung out, and Chris would have the crowd on its feet and cheering because the race was "so close". I always wished I had that ability. He was the announcer at the fairs promoted by Sam Nunis when we were running a URC sprinter.
When I became the PR guy for NEMA in the early 70s (long before the internet), I had to write the story right after the race, type many carbon copies, then get to an airport post office on my way home to mail them to the racing papers. But, for Sunday races, there was no time for that. I had to get to a phone and call the papers. Imagine my shock when, after the first Sunday race, I called NSSN and Chris himself picked up the phone (that voice was distinctive) and took my dictation. I could hear his typewriter going full speed as I read the story to him.
Those were the days.
We got him to be the guest speaker at the NEMA banquet one year. If you've read Dave Argabright's book, you know the story of the midget in the lobby of the New Yorker Hotel in New York City. Let me tell you, it was a much better story when told by the man, himself. He had the entire club killing ourselves with laughter.
I should point out that the first year he was supposed to speak at the banquet, he didn't show. Supposedly he was ill, but he wrote in his NSSN column about attending a big-time event in California. Whatever the reason, he sent his daughter, Corinne, in his place. Her line of the night was, "People ask me what it was like growing up with such a famous father. My response is, 'How in hell would I know? He was never home.'" She went on to say that every vacation they ever took involved going to race tracks. (My kids have been known to make similar comments.)
If you haven't read the Argabright book, please do so. It's near the bottom of this page:
http://www.coastal181.com/nlm-workin...eral-1.htm#Let I live in hope that Dave has enough material for a sequel.
He was one of the treasures of our sport, and he is missed.
