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Birch Bayh
Birch Bayh, a Democrat and Wabash Valley native who served in the U.S. Senate from 1974 until 1980, when Dan Quayle defeated him in his re-election bid, said upon Tony Hulman's death in 1977 that Tony Ò... was like a father to me.Ó Bayh attended the funeral for Tony, who reportedly helped him extensively behind the scenes when Bayh was first running for the Senate seat.Joe Cloutier
Anton Hulman Sr. was head of Hulman & Co. when Joseph R. Cloutier was hired as a cashier in 1926. Ten years later, Cloutier was named assistant treasurer, and the following year, he was named treasurer. He was promoted to vice-president of Hulman & Co. in 1944 and was named treasurer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway when Anton Hulman Jr. bought the track in 1945. At Hulman & Co.'s 100th anniversary celebration in the Terre Haute House on Dec. 28, 1950, Cloutier was among several employees with 25 or more years of service who received a gold lapel button and a silver pen. Cloutier was vice president of Hulman & Co. until 1977, when he was named president of Hulman & Co. and president of the speedway. After John Cooper replaced him as president of the speedway from 1978-79 before resigning, Cloutier again was named president of the speedway, a title he held until he died at age 81 on Dec. 11, 1989.Max Ehrmann
One of the most famous men to come from Terre Haute, Max Ehrmann lived a few blocks from Tony Hulman as Tony was growing up. A graduate of Harvard University, Ehrmann wrote novels, plays, poetry, essays and short stories. A poem written by him, ÒDesiderata,Ó was translated into several languages and sold more than a million copies; another Ehrmann creation, ÒA Prayer,Ó also became famous. Ehrmann died on Sept. 3, 1945, in St. Anthony's Hospital, which Herman Hulman founded in memory of his wife, Antonia.Kenneth Grimm
Kenneth ÒKennyÓ Grimm, a native of Pikesville, Md., attended George Washington Junior College and graduated from Loyola of the East in Baltimore. He served eight years in the U.S. Navy before he began working for Hulman & Co. in 1955. When he died at age 43 of an apparent heart attack in his home at 5700 Wabash Ave. on March 26, 1967, he was secretary and a director of Hulman & Co., the head of all concessions at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and chairman of the national safety committee of the United States Auto Club. After a Requiem Mass at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Grimm was buried in the Hulman family plot at Calvary Cemetery.John A. Logan
John A. Logan was president of Rose Polytechnic Institute when Tony and Mary Fendrich Hulman turned their philanthropic efforts toward the school in the 1960s. Logan and the school celebrated as the couple gave millions for various projects, including the Hulman Memorial Student Union, named in honor of Tony's parents, and the $11 million gift of the Hulman Foundation properties in 1970. In honor of that donation, the school changed its name to Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Upon Tony's death in 1977, Logan described Tony as Òone of the greatest men I knew anywhere in the world,Ó and said the Hulman donations came at Òa very critical time.Ó Logan said there was no one to replace Tony and called his death Òa real disaster for the community.ÓAlan C. Rankin
Alan Rankin, president of Indiana State University from 1965-75, was pleased to announce Tony and Mary Fendrich Hulman's $2.5 million gift in October 1969 toward a new civic center, named Hulman Civic Center in honor of the donation. Rankin, who referred to Tony as Òa national treasure,Ó stood near him as he threw the first basketball out on the new basketball court on Dec. 14, 1973. Like Mary Hulman, Rankin has a winter home in Naples, Fla., and remained a friend of the family after he retired from the university in 1980 after serving as special assistant to the president five years.Carl Stahl
Carl Stahl was another of the wealthy men living in the neighborhood Tony Hulman grew up in. Stahl, as the head member of the Stahl, Urban & Co. manufacturers of pants, shirts, overalls and coats, had dealings with Tony's grandfather, Herman Hulman, as well as a trade that extended across the United States. The company had a large factory in Terre Haute in addition to plants in other cities.Eddie Rickenbacker
Born in 1890 in Columbus, Ohio, Eddie V. Rickenbacker was the son of immigrants from Switzerland who met in that city. He raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway before becoming a World War I flying ace and purchasing the speedway in 1927. After closing the speedway after the 1941 race, Rickenbacker - who bought Eastern Airlines in April 1938 - was too busy with that and other interests to reopen the speedway following World War II, and said he didn't have the time or money to rehabilitate the track. He directed Wilbur Shaw as a natural leader to attract state capital, and Shaw caught the interest of Tony Hulman, who bought the speedway from Rickenbacker for $750,000 in November 1945. ÒTony has done a marvelous job,Ó Rickenbacker said later. ÒHe has put millions back into the speedway, and it is in magnificent shape.ÓWilbur Shaw
A three-time winner of the Indianapolis 500, Indianapolis native Wilbur Shaw is the man many say was convinced Tony Hulman was the only man who could save the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from destruction when owner Eddie Rickenbacker wanted to sell it. Rickenbacker chose Shaw to attract capital for the sale of the speedway and convinced Tony to purchase it for $750,000 in 1945. Upon his purchase of the speedway, Tony made Shaw president of the speedway board and himself president. Shaw's tenure in that role would be less than 10 years; in 1954, he died in an unexplained plane crash into a cornfield, and Tony became chairman.Chris Schenkel
A sportscaster for 56 years, Chris Schenkel first met Tony Hulman in the 1940s soon after Tony bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. In 1965, when Schenkel moved from CBS to ABC, he began covering the Indianapolis 500 and would end up riding in many a pace car with Tony and celebrities such as James Garner and Marty Robbins. Tony and Schenkel shared a love of golf, a persistent smoking habit and various adventures - Òyou name it, we did it,Ó said Schenkel. The last time Schenkel saw Tony was when the pair served as co-grand marshals of the 1977 Martinsville Fall Festival. They rode on a float with the Miss America runner-up, and on the cold day, Tony refused Schenkel's offer of his overcoat as he talked about buying a small town in Ohio. A week later, Tony died. Schenkel now lives in Lake Tippecanoe.Ralph Tucker
Five-term Terre Haute mayor Ralph Tucker was mayor when Tony Hulman in 1959 bought the Terre Haute House, Grand Opera House Block and Terre Haute House Garage in Òone of the largest, if not the largest, downtown real estate and property transfers in many years,Ó a local newspaper said. And Tucker was in the crowd in the Grand Opera House on Sept. 21, 1959, during a dinner and performance marking the opera house closing. In a brief speech, Tucker noted Bud Taylor, Terre Haute's bantam weight champion, fought some of his best bouts in the Grand. Tony Hulman, also in the crowd, said fire hazards were part of the reason he decided to demolish the circa-1897 structure. When Tony bought the Terre Haute House, it was still a busy hotel and vital part of the downtown; by the time he died on Oct. 27, 1977, it had been closed to travelers for seven years. Upon Tony's death, Tucker said it was Òa tragic loss to this communityÓ and described Tony as Òirreplaceable.ÓRichard Van Allen
Richard Van Allen started working at the Terre Haute House in 1956, later becoming manager, a position he held until February 1996. Van Allen became acquainted with the Hulman family, particularly Tony Hulman and his mother, Grace Ada Smith Hulman, after Tony bought the Terre Haute House, the Terre Haute House Garage and the Grand Opera House, which he then had demolished. Van Allen said people don't realize that Tony Hulman Ògave so muchÓ to keep the hotel open even after Interstate 70 began pulling guests away, such as selling food at cost and allowing groups to meet in the hotel for free. And though Van Allen was upset when Tony closed the hotel to traveling guests on July 4, 1970, he said he understood why - Òit wasn't making any money, and that's the main thing. We were losing money, quite a bit.ÓB.L. Viquesney
B.L. Viquesney was the senior member of the Viquesney Company, which handled printing, publishing and binding when Tony Hulman was growing up in his childhood home at 802 Chestnut St. The company was then one of the leading printing companies in the city, and Viquesney, while living in the neighborhood of Anton and Grace Hulman and Eugene V. Debs, became familiar with the sight of young Tony passing by.
