Studebaker diversities- C.T.L. = Cincinnati Testing Laboratories, Cincinnati, Ohio. Acquired August 5, 1959. Studebaker also acquired Gering Products Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, another plastics firm, the same day. Studebaker International S.A. = A company formed to handle its marketing, sales and presence outside North America, December 15, 1961. Similar to Studebaker Export, which handled the automotive export sales, but for the whole company. By the way, I have a copy of a Studebaker of Canada ad, March 1963, that lists a number of Studebaker divisions and their products. The ad, unfortunately, is a copy taken from microfilm so the quality is rather poor. Across the top of the ad is an illustration of a submarine with the caption : "Every North American atomic submarine has just one Paxton Supercharger as its sole means of air circulation while under water. The life of the crew depends on the unfailing operation of this single unit. This confidence only comes from quality. Paxton Products is a division of Studebaker." (Note : As Canada and Mexico did not have atomic submarines, this of course should read "Every American atomic submarine ..." Just a nice way to broaden the appeal of the story.) Another blurb : "The largest microwave line in the world is powered by generators built by the Onan Division of Studebaker. This 3,060 mile tele-communications network links Turkey, Iran and Pakistan. Onan is now working on a fuel cell which will almost double the efficiency of a diesel engine." Onan Division was acquired on October 6, 1960, when it was known as D.W. Onan and Sons, Inc., of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The ad also lists DOMOWATT (Italian) Appliance Division. No idea when this company was acquired. Also, the president of Trans International Airlines Inc. in 1963 was one Kirk Kerkorian, most recently of Chrysler "fame". T.I.A. (and Kerkorian with it) was sold by Studebaker on June 11, 1964. 1) The decision to end auto production was close to being made after the bailout by Curtis-Wright. Some board members had probably already concluded it was inevitable. Then, Harold Churchill surprised everyone with the Lark. This presented a perplexing set of contradictions in motion within the board. The board members who were all for ending production pushed diversification toward the goal of long term corporate survival (disguised at the time as a place to utilize tax credits), while others pointed to the success of the Lark as all the more reason to remain in autos. The legal ramifications of ending auto production (honoring dealer contracts, labor relations, etc.) are probably the only reason the board did not act quickly as the Lark lost market share to the other compacts introduced during 1961-63. (I had a former boss who's father in law was a corporate lawyer in South Bend. I worked for him during 1990-1991. He said the last lawsuit generated from the closing was settled in the late 80's. He wouldn't get specific.) 2) Studebaker was wildly successful at adding new dealers after the Lark was introduced. I don't think they set their standards very high and a lot of the dealers were under capitalized, or had a primary business in another industry (it was common in rural Indiana for a farm implement dealer to also carry Studes). The Big Three also would not allocate fair numbers of their compacts to Studebaker dualed dealers, thus multiplying the downward pressure on some of Studebaker's best volume outlets. This seriously affected Stude's marketing presence and sales numbers as the duals dropped Studebaker to get more Falcons, Corvairs and Valiant's. 3) Studebaker 1958 - 1963 was like a gambler coming to Las Vegas with the last $500 to his name. They went to the Blackjack table and hit it big with the Lark, then they went to the craps table with the Avanti and lost their shirt. Board members who pushed for diversification and drove money into non auto businesses felt justified after December 1963. A small time player in with the big boys had been retired, and the stockholders didn't lose. ---------- First, Daimler-Benz was not proposing a merger. Daimler-Benz, in 1959, proposed to purchase Studebaker preferred stock. Studebaker Board member A.M. "Sonny" Sonnabend, who was heading up acquisitions, objected. He contended the Germans were "undesirable stockholders who might get control of the corporation. Harold Churchill favored the acquisition, noting Daimler-Benz had provided Studebaker with both new business (the distribution rights for Mercedes) and technological help. The board narrowly voted to reject Daimler-Benz's offer. It was a bad decision for Studebaker, but one that played into Sonnabend's goal of gaining control of Studebaker for himself. Neither the Big Three nor the US government ever got involved in the Daimler-Benz bid to acquire Studebaker preferred stock. Barney Roos was an engineer, formerly of Peirce Arrow, Marmon and Locomobile. He replaced Max Wollering as Chief Engineer as Studebaker. (according to Cars & Parts Magazine) Barney Roos resigned from Studebaker in the summer of 1936 to join the Rootes Group in England. He was succeeded by William S. James as chief engineer and Roy Cole as vice president of engineering. However, Roos involvement with Studebaker was not quite finished. As most know, Roos converted the L-head Willys engines to F-heads in 1950. When Studebaker-Packard was trying to figure out what to do with the Champion L-head, William Graves, packard's vice presidentof engineering, called Roos in to discuss the conversion he did for Willys. It is reported that Roos was less than enthusiastic about a conversion in 1955. So, Roos suggested S-P trade its 259 V8 for AMC's 200-ci OHV 6. Unfortunately, AMC was planning to introduce its own 250-ci V8 and didn't need the Studebaker powerplant. And George Romney was not about to sell Studebaker their OHV 6. Since S-P had cancelled plans for a F-head, they were left with the venerable Champion for a few more years. I just got another E-Mail that said after Barney left Studebaker he designed the Jeep for the government. I guess he was not retiring at that banquet in 1934. If you love history two old Studebaker books are fun. One is "Studebaker a complete History 1852 to 1926" and the other is " A century on wheels" by Stephen Longstreet. I think the first book was just given to employees and I've seen it in several bindings.