Special to the Society of Landspeed Racing Historians Newsletter by Doug Stokes...
Shav Glick passes away October 20, 2007.

1) OCTOBER 21, 2007. Respected Newspaper Journalist Shav Glick passed away early this morning
after a year-long battle with melanoma. I have no more details than the fact that he died peacefully
after what had been a very uncomfortable time for a man who had been so vigorous andseemingly
so bullet-proof for 85+ years. Shav Glickâ??s work was always about the people. Covering the most
tech-enabled sport there is, Shav always preferred to print the stories about the folks who made the
tech work. Not that he didnâ??t understand or appreciate mechanical side of the racing sport, it was
just that he understood that the real story always started with the first of the â??5 Wâ??sâ?� â?¦ Who?
Motorsports movers and shakers? Shav knew them all, and his calls were always taken, always
returned. Not out of fear, but because articles written under Shavâ??s byline were considered important
documents in his realm. One of only two journalists ever to be elected to the Motorsports Hall of
Fame; his words, his views, his interviews, were all plainly important to the sport. He always under
stood that fact, but never let on that he did. By the way, he also got a lot of great mileage out of
that last â??Wâ?� as well: Why? On a personal note: I got my job as the PR guy at Perris Auto Speed
way on a one-word answer to a one-question job interview. â??Do you know Shav Glick?â?� â??Yes.â?�
Iâ??ve previously noted the kind of respect that Shav had among the captains and princes of the
industry. He was universally respected, never feared, always revered. He retooled Henry Fordâ??s
famous dictum by always explaining and (almost) never complaining. He was approachable, open,
friendly, but always a true, tough journalist in every way when on the trail of a good story. It
seemed to me that he never broke a sweat, even while writing an exact number of column inches
on a hard, fast-approaching deadline. In reality his work only looked easy. His stuff always read
easily, one never had to go back into the copy to restring a thread of logic. I know that he worked
hard on every sentence that he ever wrote but his true talent was getting it right the first time.
Perhaps no other newspaper journalist ever had to publish fewer corrections, and, when he did,
he did it was always in the same â??sizeâ?� type as his original story. Re-reading what Iâ??ve written
above about my dear friend Shav Glick, I notice the word â??alwaysâ?� cropping up in just about
every â??graph. Bad writing at it's best. However, for my writing talent level, thereâ??s no other way
to explain this guy this morning. He was just an â??alwaysâ?� kind of a person. Godspeed Sir,
Godspeed! Doug Stokes 10/20/07