ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Family is everything to Harry (Herk) Phillips.
The retired car salesman is a devoted husband, a father of four and the best grandfather any grandchild could ask for. Just ask anyone who knows him, and they will tell you a story.
He had his days in the sun as an athlete, especially baseball, but it was a sale he made more than 55 years ago that may give him the most notoriety.
Phillips sold the first Ford Mustang — not just the first one in Newfoundland and Labrador, but the first-ever production model. He sold it to airline pilot Stanley Tucker in April 1964, three days before the car was made available to the world.
Little did he know what a momentous occasion it would be.
His granddaughter, Stephanie Mealey, has taken on the task of running a social media campaign hoping to get The Henry Ford Museum and Ford Motor Co. to recognize this accomplishment as part of the history of the Mustang.
The initiative — #SendHarryToHenry — hopes to be able to send Phillips to Detroit to be reunited with the car, tour the museum, see the history surrounding it and perhaps be a side note in that history.
“We know he was the first salesman to sell the car. We are hoping through this we can get some acknowledgement of that fact from Ford and something can be done to reunite him with the car at the museum,’’ Mealey said.
“I reached out to Scott (Halliday, president of the NL Mustangs car club) to see what we could do, so we decided the #SendHarryToHenry initiative on three platforms would be the way to get the information out there.’’
Herk’s history has made a resurgence the past few weeks as the NL Mustang club has held a few events to honour Phillips, including a few weeks ago when he was the guest of honour at the Wheels for Wishes car show held in Mount Pearl, and on Tuesday night when a host of club members gathered with Phillips at The Big’s on Freshwater Road for a feed of Herk’s favourite — chicken wings.
“This is a chance to make every Newfoundlander aware of Harry (Herk) Phillips,’’ Halliday said.
“I don’t think there is any bigger story than this. It should be embedded in Newfoundlanders, like Elvis or Marilyn Monroe is for Americans.’’
Halliday said Harry is well-respected in the car community, and he and the club’s members want to make sure his history is documented and that when people see the convertible Mustang, his name will be associated with it.
He will be the guest of honour again Saturday for the Cruisin' 2019 car show being held in Bowring Park from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The rain date is for Sunday, Aug. 11. The event is sponsored by the Newfoundland Antique and Classic Car Club.
Phillips will be located directly across from the splash pad throughout the day, and a host of NL Mustangs members will have their cars on display.
Halliday will outline Phillips’ story and St. John’s Mayor Danny Breen will make a presentation to him to denote his accomplishment.
Sales career
Phillips started his sales career at George C.R. Parsons Ltd. on Elizabeth Avenue in St. John’s in 1959. His laid-back approach was refreshing to customers and as he settled into the industry, the customers started to come back to him regularly.
In 1964, it was just another workday when Eastern Provincial Airlines pilot Stanley Tucker came into the showroom to have a look at the new car Ford was releasing that year, a two-door sports car.
“When he saw the car, I remember him saying, ‘I want it,’” Phillips said.
“It was a week or so until it was actually being released to the public, but we were able to make a deal. We couldn’t deliver it until it was released, so he stopped in every day to make sure nobody else had driven the car.’’
Phillips said Tucker would walk around the car, admire it, chat with him about it and basically fell in love with it, knew he had to have it and was anxious to get it out the door.
Parsons Ford lasted until 1976, when it went into insolvency and the business changed to Regatta Ford, and Phillips went to work for them. In 1990, it became Avalon Ford and he worked there until he retired in 1995.
“Sales is regimented now. The company sets the routine and you just have to follow it,’’ he said.
“I am not sure how many Mustangs I would have sold once they were released. Back then, the Crown Victoria was a good seller, the Ford Fairlane and the Tempo. I also sold a lot of station wagons (Ford Squire Wagon), the ones with the wood panelling sides.’’
The now 84-year-old admits he is not a computer-savvy person, but is happy to know there are a host of people supporting him in the initiative.
To be included in the car history and the Ford museum would be a bucket list item for Phillips.
“I would be overwhelmed to be included in the history of the car,’’ Phillips said.
“I sometimes Google the museum, find the car and take a look at it. I do that quite often.’’
Hoping for visit
“We would love to have him here and to tell the story of the sale of this car,’’ said Matt Anderson, curator of transportation at The Henry Ford Museum in Detroit.
“There have been some conversations here internally about how we can include his information, perhaps a video interview that will capture the story.’’
Anderson said part of Phillips' visit would include a tour of the Ford Rouge facility, where Mustangs were made at that time, and where Ford now makes its 150 line of pickup trucks.
He said how the car came to be sold is a mystery they are trying to solve.
“As a pre-production listing, about 180 cars were manufactured and sent out to the dealers across North America. This one, the one labelled as No. 1, was sent to St. John’s and No. 2 wound up in the Yukon,’’ he said.
“Normally what would happen with those vehicles is they would be displayed in showrooms for people to see, they could order a car or wait for the allotted models to come in and purchase from there. How this one came to be sold is a mystery."
Ford had to do some fancy dancing in order to negotiate it back into their fold and spent a year working with Tucker to re-acquire it, and did so in 1966 by offering him a custom-built model for that year.
Harry married his wife, Rosemary, in 1956. They had five children: three daughters, Debbie (oldest of five), Heather and Roseanne, and two sons, Steve and Harry, who are both deceased.
All of the children resided in St. John’s and started their own families, and there are nine grandchildren, including Stephanie, Heather’s daughter, who is leading the charge to get him to see the car once again.
