Someone You Should Know

 John Marshall

Ken Brady Award Winner 2014

by Carol Healy

John Marshall is an active Model A’er and a 27 year veteran of the Chicago Police Department. During his years of service he attained the rank of Sergeant and served his last three years in the Internal Affairs Division as the Assistant Department Advocate. He retired in June 2004 and moved to his dream home in the country where he spends more time with his family and keeps busy working on his Model A’s.  John, his wife Pat and daughter Heather have restored a 1931 Slant Windshield Town Sedan, a

1930 Deluxe Roadster that won a Touring Class MARC of Excellence award at the National Meet in St. Charles, Illinois in 1995, Heather’s Touring Class Award of Excellence winning 1930 Roadster Pickup and a 1930 Closed Cab Pickup.  Current restoration projects include a 1931 AA stake bed truck.  John also works on cars owned by club members and other friends in his spare time.

John has been a member of the Model A Restorer’s Club and the Calumet Region since 1989. He held the Regional office of Treasurer for three years and was the Region Vice President for 14 years. He was also editor of the Region newsletter “The Chatter” which won the Newsletter of the Year Award for 2009. He was the Chairperson of the 1999 National Membership Meet in Alsip, Illinois hosted by the Calumet Region, and he was on the Joliet Region committee which hosted the 2007 National Membership Meet held in Joliet, IL.  He is also a charter member of the Henry’s A’s Region that was formed to host the 2009 National Meet in Merrillville, IN.  During the Merrillville meet, John was responsible for the Welcome Party which brought the highly entertaining Tommy Guns roaring 20’s show directly to us

In addition, John has served 2 terms on the MARC Board of Directors as Secretary and was also active on the MARC Touring Class committee helping to write the Touring Class Judging Standards which were adopted by MARC.  He is currently the Great Lakes Regional News Correspondent for the Model A News, a position he has held for many years.

While serving on the MARC BOD he was involved in such projects as the locating and purchase of the current MARC office building, publishing the Technically Speaking series of restoration books, updating the MARC constitution and Meet Standards, assisting in the change to the current printer of the MAN and hiring of our current MAN editor.

Also during his tenure on the MARC Board John worked with the MARC Youth Coordinator to develop the Model A Youth Restoration Assist Program (MAYRAP).  The program works to bring seasoned restorers together with youth interested in the Model A hobby in an effort to pass along the restoration experience and knowledge that ends up lost without such interaction.   He also assisted the then Youth Coordinator in building a closed cab pickup truck constructed from parts that were donated or cast off from old Model A projects. The former Youth Coordinator is still a MARC member today and continues to drive his truck regularly. John is a staunch supporter of getting more youth involved in the Model A hobby.

Currently, John is in his second term as a trustee for MAFFI.  He has been active in the Model A Museum project from the inception of the museum design and has worked with the various funding projects to research, design, build and stock the era replica Parts Department located in the museum. Most of the parts displayed were restored by John.  All the display signs and tags were also made over a one year period by John.  He serves as an ambassador for the museum working the Parts Department during special events at the museum.

This is John Marshall and he’s someone you should know.