Father of the 426 hemi, Tom Hoover, not doing well. Please read

[Cooter]

From another forum...

Tom Hoover was the father of the Hemi engine. Mr Hoover is 83 years old and as mentally sharp as ever. However, he has a serious blood disorder and has been in and out of the hospital many times in the past few months. This man is one of the most intelligent men I've ever met when it comes to automotive engineering. He was the head of the HEMI race program from the beginning, and the developer of the 426 Hemi, Ramcharger and Motown Missile engine programs. When Chrysler went to remake the 5.7 hemi in the 2000's they sent Chrysler engineers to his house for a week to discuss design issues and changes he wish he had made. Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth racers would have never had the things available to them, without this man.

I'm asking the racing community show your support and appreciation of his years as an engineer in the race program. He was a behind the scenes guy that got very little credit for his work. If you could take 5 minutes out of your day to mail Mr Hoover a Get Well card, note of thanks or a short letter it will boost an 83 year old mans spirits. We did this 2 years ago with Bob Cahill another race program director and it lifted his spirits beyond belief.
Thanks for your support, I've always said Racers are the best people in the world.

No phone calls please,
Tom Hoover
6022 Tolman Circle
Roanoke, Va 24012

It would mean a lot to me if you guys could just shoot out a simple card. No gifts, visits or phone calls please. Just a simple get well would be awesome. I hope we has a few more in him, but it's not looking good at this point.

Thank You.

[68X426]

Done! Thank you so much for posting.

A short Tom bio: http://www.allpar.com/corporate/bios/hoover.html

[Mopar Nut]

Will do, thanks for posting.

Thanks for the bio.

[r4daytona]

I'll get one out after work today.

[areibel]

Me too.
We had a chance to meet Mr. Hoover at our club's show back in 04 or 05.  One of our members arranged for him to be a speaker about the Hemis, he had a lot of cool stories about beating up the original A990's.   And like Cooter said, sharp as a tack.  It was something to see, a bunch of car guys crowded into a hot tent watching slides and listening to him for two hours while the general public wondered what was wrong with all of them- why weren't they looking at the hot rods?

[71ChallengeHer]

I will pick a card up tomorrow , when I do my errands.   

[odcics2]

Thanks for the heads up, Cooter.   

[XS29L]

Thanks for posting this! I'm sending a card today.

[mauve66]

to Tom for making Mopars the envy of the GM/Ford crowd