Wednesday, March 15, 2000
Hess & Eisenhardt co-founder dies
Firm built limos for presidents, kings
BY REBECCA BILLMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The day President Kennedy died, Willard C. Hess felt it in a personal way. His company, Hess & Eisenhardt of Blue Ash, had customized the limousine in which the president was riding Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas.
“We had worked on that car,” Mr. Hess told The Cincinnati Enquirer in 1991. “We had a personal pride in it.”
Mr. Hess died Sunday of an apparent heart attack at his Wyoming home. He was 94.
The presidential limousine, designed by engineers at the Ford Motor Co. in cooperation with those at Hess & Eisenhardt, had fur carpeting, lap robes embroidered with gold thread, built-in flood lights, 5,000 feet of communications wiring and the ability to stop on a dime.
“It was probably the most fabulous automobile built in this decade,” Mr. Hess told the Cincinnati Rotary Club in 1964.
Three days after the assassination, the Lincoln was back in the Blue Ash plant, and Mr. Hess was in Washington. He was named a consultant by the Warren Commission, which was appointed by President Johnson to investigate the assassination.
For years after, Mr. Hess speculated that if the president had been using the removable bubble top he might not have been killed.
The tragedy lingered for Mr. Hess. In 1985, he invited a group of those who had worked on the car to his home in Wyoming to view a replica and reminisce.
Mr. Hess's grandfather, Emil E. Hess, and Charles A. Eisenhardt began working for Sayres and Scoville Carriage Makers downtown when it was manufacturing carriages and buggies in 1891. The elder Mr. Hess worked his way up to president of the company, which was one of the few carriage makers to make the transition to motorized conveyance.
When the heirs sought to liquidate the company in 1942, Mr. Hess, along with his father, and Mr. Eisenhardt and his son, Charles, bought the company which made hearses, ambulances and other specialized vehicles.
Mr. Hess had graduated from Hughes High School and after two years of study at the University of Cincinnati's engineering school, transferred to the General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich. He graduated in 1930 and began working for Sayres and Scoville.
From the assets of Sayres and Scoville, the partners started Hess & Eisenhardt and moved the operation to Blue Ash.
When the Secret Service became concerned about the safety of President Truman, it approached General Motors about building a passenger vehicle that could withstand hand-weapon attacks. General Motors, in turn, asked Hess & Eisenhardt to design and construct such a car.
Mr. Hess undertook the project and was given access to proving grounds to study armored vehicles. He then developed the technique and process to make a passenger armored car.
Thus began the company's long history of customizing armored cars for every president from Harry Truman to Lyndon Johnson. They also built cars for J. Edgar Hoover, Queen Elizabeth II, King Paul of Greece, King Ibn Saud of Saudia Arabia, King Hussein of Jordan, and many others, including movie stars.
The company also filled an order for a Cadillac station wagon by the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs, Colo., in 1955.
Four of the presidential limos are on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Greenfield Village in Detroit.
In 1931, Mr. Hess married Adele Emig who lived down the street on Riddle Road in Clifton. The couple was married for 68 years.
Mr. Hess' memberships were legion, and as his daughter, Jane Hess Walker of Wyoming said, he lived a long time and had time to do a lot of things.
Among the most notable, Mr. Hess was honored for his 75-year association with the Boy Scouts. He also was awarded the Silver Beaver Award — the highest award in scouting — and founded the Eagle Court of Honor.
His daughter said Mr. Hess credited the Boy Scouts with saving his life. He severed a finger while sledding as a 13-year-old and knew how to apply a tourniquet because he learned it in scouting.
Mr. Hess also involved himself in the community. He was a member of Wyoming City Council and the Wyoming School Foundation, was a president of the Wyoming Civic Center, and was honored as a Wyoming Citizen of the Year.
He established and directed the Ohio Hemophilia Association, was a member of the American Society of Body Engineers and the Society of Automotive Engineers.
His company was sold in 1982 to the O'Gara Cos., which now operates the O'Gara Hess & Eisenhardt Armoring Co. in Butler County. Charles Eisenhardt, Mr. Hess's partner, died in 1988.
Retiring was far from Mr. Hess's mind.
He began a lecture tour about the unusual cars his company built and became a board member of the Citizen State Bank in Montgomery. He was active in the bank until it was sold to Huntington Bank.
His son, J. Daniel Hess of Detroit said, “He didn't work — his work was his hobby and his life.”
Before he died, Mr. Hess made known his desire for his last ride to be in a hearse he built. Eager to fulfill his wish, his family made many calls before they finally located one.
A 1937 Victoria hearse, made by Sayres and Scoville, is being transported to Wyoming from Washington, Ind., on a truck. The owner, Jim Pirkle, is lending it for Mr. Hess's funeral procession.
In addition to his wife, daughter and son, survivors are another son, Willard C. Hess Jr. of Milford, Mich.; eight grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
The funeral will be at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Wyoming Presbyterian Church, 225 Wyoming Ave. Burial is in Spring Grove Cemetery.
Memorials: Willard C. Hess Memorial Fund, Wyoming School Foundation, 401 Crescent Ave. Wyoming 45215 or the Dan Beard Council, Boy Scouts of America, 2331 Victory Parkway, Cincinnati 45206.
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