Thresher Reunion 2024: Reid's Studebaker Hawk brings back memories
BY SHAWN LOUGHLIN
This year’s featured car is a 1960 Studebaker Hawk owned by Wayne (Chuck) Reid of Hensall and, if you see him at the reunion and the mood strikes him right, you might just be able to buy it from him.
Reid is unlike many collectors of cars, antique farm equipment, steam engines, etc., in that he has owned many cars over the years, but will often sell them and buy another one after three or four years. He says he’ll get bored with a car or will have had his fun with it and is eager for a new experience with a new classic car. He bought the aforementioned Studebaker in 2020, so, when taking Reid’s history into account, the clock may just be ticking.
The Hawk was built in Hamilton. In 2008, Roy Ionson of Flesherton bought the car and undertook its complete restoration. Five years later, John David Hill of Kincardine bought the car and that’s when and where Reid first came in contact with the car he would eventually come to own.
A frequent attendee of area car shows, Reid would be showing his car of the day in Kincardine and frequently come across Hill and the Hawk. Reid told Hill he loved the car and was interested in buying it, but Hill had no interest in selling it for many years. Reid, however, was persistent and, in 2020, when Hill was 97 years old, he decided to part ways with the car and it became Reid’s. He has owned several other cars, one of them being a 1965 Thunderbird, but he had always wanted to own a Hawk and, in 2020, that dream came true.
It was one that dated back to his childhood. Reid was born in Hensall in 1941 and Studebakers were always around, with dealerships in both Exeter and Brucefield, so he was always seeing them on the road in his formative years.
His obsession with cars, he said, began the day he got his driver’s licence and he’s never turned back. He spent his life in the service department of a nearby RV dealership and has always worked on cars, though he does less of it these days.
Reid said he was pretty pleased when he was told that his car had won the People’s Choice Award at the 2023 reunion of the Huron Pioneer Thresher and Hobby Association.
He has known Bill and Maxine Seers - the couple that has run the antique car portion of the reunion for decades - for years, so when Bill asked him if he’d mind taking a picture with his car, his interest was piqued. Bill then mentioned that there may be a trophy involved and Reid knew that his vehicle was being honoured. It was the first time Reid had won anything at a car competition, which made it extra special for him.
As for his frequent turning-in of cars, he says that all of the cars he has owned over the years have been his favourites and he can’t choose one over the other. Further to that point, he doesn’t know what his next car purchase will be - he says he won’t know it until he sees it and, as an avid car show patron, he’s always keeping his eyes open.