The staff was very happy about our move out of the city. The city of Detroit was experiencing the same thing many other cities were: the move to the suburbs. Detroit was the automobile manufacturing capital of the world; however the higher echelon of workers started to move into the suburbs, which were expanding further and further outside the city. This left the lower echelon workers and a large influx of people, mostly from the south, to take up the space of those who fled to suburbia. The assembly line of auto manufacturing needed workers who could handle single tasks on the line. The unions were very strong, wages were high, and benefits assured workers of uncommon security. This attracted a great number of black workers from southern states with limited education, who naturally wanted to share in the American dream. In no time at all, Detroit became a mostly black city. Nearby cities such as Dearborn had curfews; all black people could not be in that city after dark. Thank God those days are mostly behind us, but, in the 60's, this was one of the reasons behind the race riots.
Now I had to find a place for our KLM office. You will recall that I was working with Dick Robinson, owner and publisher of Impresario Magazine, on a performing arts tour of Eastern Europe. We had over 30 people signed up; Dick and his wife were going to travel with the group as tour conductors. Dick was a handsome man in his forties and his wife a very attractive lady who shared Dick's love and appreciation for the performing arts. They had three great teenagers, two boys and a girl. Back in those days, airlines were not permitted to give free transportation in exchange for business. A few of the international airlines got around that ruling by offering employment to the person who was responsible for generating passengers. This was carefully implemented as no one wanted it to get out of hand. I was able to hire Dick's wife as a "part time" sales Representative. As an employee, she and her husband were able to give obtain free passes to accompany their group. The tour cost per person was over $4,000. There were only three couples signed up, the rest were mostly wealthy women, either widows or wives of Auto executives, except for one lady who had saved her salary as a housekeeper all her life; and loved the performing arts. You'll learn more about the participants as we go along.
It was early September when I got the news that Luke Asjes was returning to Amsterdam to become a KLM V.P. in Amstelveen, our home office location, not far from Schiphol Airport. Schiphol was the location of a very large KLM airfreight terminal where all incoming airfreight was sorted and redirected to its final destination. KLM's maintenance base was also there, and it was state of the art. You could eat off the floor, it was so clean. Engine technicians wore white uniforms and all our mechanics were trained at Pratt and Whitney Aircraft, in East Hartford, Connecticut. I was going to miss Luke Asjes. He was a tough, but very fair individual. Luke Asjes, Roger Ackley and Luke's replacement, Arne Duyf, came to Detroit and we had lunch together at the Press Club. Duyf was a very likeable man who had been in sales for KLM for a number of years. He was following the path of other Dutch employees, destined for a higher position in the future. The USA was a very important destination for the company. Besides New York, Miami, Houston and Los Angeles, KLM had in mind other cities which they would like to serve.
It was just about the middle of the month when Dick Robinson told me that he was taking his family to upper Michigan for a short vacation. He expected to be back in about a week or so. His Impresario Magazine organized tour was due to leave on the 29th. It was a pretty busy time for me. It seemed that I had a lot going on. I was working with Chrysler on a large group; there were a number of DIS charters to handle at the airport. I had fired one of my Sales Reps and was trying to interview a replacement. I also had some people from the head office who were interested in how we handled the Dutch Immigrant Soc. Charters and wanted to see how we did it; they wanted to meet with John Witte, of the D.I.S. In any event, time was flying and I needed to talk with Dick Robinson about his tour. We usually had lunch together every couple of weeks, but I had been so busy we hadn't spoken all month. I called his office and talked with Joe Scolara, his office manager and assistant. He told me that Dick had not returned from Northern Michigan, yet. I asked if he had a telephone number for Dick; he said that their cabin didn't have a telephone, but not to worry as Dick often stayed out of communication with him. He was sure Dick would show up soon.
It was just a few days later when some hikers were passing Dicks Cabin up north; they knocked on the door, but no one answered. They noticed an open window and looked inside; they could see people laying on the floor and a very bad odor coming from inside. They ran to find a phone and notify the police. Joe Scolara called and told me that Dick, his wife, and three children had all been murdered, shot to death in their cabin. I was shocked and bewildered over the tragedy. Why would anyone kill an entire family, just like that? Over the next few days the Detroit papers were full of speculation: had it been a mob killing? Apparently there were some questions about Dick's background, but nothing came of that. Then I had to go to Chicago for a series of meetings and I had to figure out what I was going to do about Dick's tour. I talked it over with Roger Ackley and Arne Duyf; their answer was that, since I had helped organizing the tour and knew all the participants, I should escort it. Now, who wouldn't give up their eye teeth to take a trip like that? Not me. I didn't want to do it, however there was just no one else that made any sense. I sent in my passport to New York and the staff obtained all the visas I would need. I arranged with my secretary to contact all the tour participants and tell them that I would be escorting them; she should arrange for one of our sales reps to be at the Detroit airport to see the group off, and I would join them when they arrived at Kennedy Airport. The reason for this was that I was already going to be in New York attending the farewell party for Luke Asjes. On top of this, I had a telephone call from Joe Scolara; he told me that he was the chief suspect in the murder of Dick, but he swore that he had not done it. Joe wanted to have lunch with me but, there was no time before I had to leave for New York. We agreed that we would have lunch together when I returned.
So far, 1967 had been quite a year, and I still had to find a new location outside of Detroit for our office. It was also of concern to me that this tour was going to take me away from my family again. Also, I didn't know what I would find out from Joe Scolara upon my return.
No comments:
Post a Comment