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A California man’s search for the history of his restored 1956 Packard Clipper would have ended earlier this month if not for a pen and a mechanical pencil found lodged in the vehicle’s defroster.
“I had all but given up finding information on the car,” said Mike Hammerberg of Pinole, California. “The Packard Club had no record, and I couldn’t even locate the ad in the car magazines of the era. I had all but given up when the pen and pencil arrived.”
Written on the body of the pen were the words, “Pipestone Federal Savings, The Home of Insured Savings.” The mechanical pencil’s advertisement included not only the name of the business but also the manager’s name and a phone number: “Hardwick Farmers Exchange, Phone 43, Earl D. Scott, Mgr., Hardwick, Minn.”
Pipestone Federal Savings was in business for 63 years, closing in 1982.
Hammerberg decided Hardwick might provide more answers and narrow the possibilities of who first owned the Clipper.
He wrote an email to the city of Hardwick on Nov. 7: “I know this is a long shot, but is there anyone you know of, maybe age 66+, who might remember the car and who owned it. I’ve attached a picture of it to help.”
Contacted by e-mail, Hammerberg said his research has revealed the car’s origin built date was in 1956 but hasn’t located any information in a 41-year span other than a reference to Minnesota in a previous title.
His contacted the Minnesota Department of Motor Vehicles but didn’t receive a reply.
“Those records may have been long gone,” Hammerberg rationalized.
He had given up on finding the car’s early history until he received the pen and pencil in the mail from the car’s restorer.
Research revealed car delivered to Kansas City
“I was able to get the original build owner from the National Studebaker Museum in South Bend,” he wrote.
The two-tone green, two-door 1956 Packard Clipper hardtop originally arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, in January 1956. It was the 1,212th out of a production of 1,466 Constellation models built that year.
Through phone calls to previous owners, Hammerberg’s search tracked the car to 1997, when the car was purchased and moved to Rochester, Indiana.
“I searched his name and found that he had passed away a month after the car was sold,” he wrote. “I was able to contact his son in Rochester, Indiana, but the history got cold.”
The son sold the car for $5,000 on eBay in 2006 to a man in Tucker, Georgia. The Georgia man owned the car for five years before a Craigslist sale brought the vehicle to Omaha, Nebraska, where Hammerberg first found the car on Craigslist.
The 1956 Clipper was last attempt at business
When Hammerberg’s car made its way to market in Kanas City, Missouri, the Clipper Constellation was Packard’s desperate attempt to stay in business.
“Technically it had great innovations in its suspension, transmission and powerful V8 engine,” Hammerberg said. “It was striking and the quality was there as well.
“The 1956 production was the last gallant try for a corporation in business since 1900.”
However, attempts for a more solid financial footing failed, and Packard stopped production of the Clipper in June 1956. Studebaker Packard closed its doors in 1958.
Desire for a Clipper goes back to college days
Hammerberg’s desire for a 1956 Clipper dates back to his college years at University of North Dakota in Grand Forks.
“The story begins in 1969 when I purchased three Packards for parts,” he remembered. “I was a poor student from Chicago and had bought a crashed 1955 Packard Clipper for $50.”
Two of the three cars had all the spare parts he needed to fix the crashed Packard.
“The third was a 1956 two-door hardtop that needed more work than my skills and finances permitted,” Hammerberg wrote. “It was a green and black beauty but was sold to the local wrecking yard.”
The former mechanic, teacher and school administrator retired last year to care full time for his wife, who was diagnosed with brain lymphoma and kidney failure.
“In the quiet times I would browse the web looking at cars I’d once owned and daydream. It was my therapy,” he reiterated.
His wife noticed the search and bought the 1956 Packard in Omaha for his birthday. A friend in Nebraska picked up the car, and another friend had the car restored before its expected delivery to California this week.
“It will be great to take my wife for a ride in her gift,” Hammerberg wrote.
Arrival of pen, pencil renews history search
“I received an envelope with some invoices and the title to the car, as well as a little sandwich bag,” Hammerberg wrote. “In the bag was a note, ‘Found in the Packard vent’ along with one mechanical pencil and ballpoint pen.”
Hardwick Grain Exchange was owned and operated by Earl and Marcella Scott from 1947 to 1957, according to Marcella, who still resides in Hardwick.
Earl died in December 2001.
She said the couple never owned a Packard.
Each Christmas Hardwick Grain Exchange gave pens or mechanical pencils to customers. The business was sold to Cargill in 1957.
Because the mechanical pencil was found inside the car’s dash, its owner might have lived in the Hardwick area and been one of its early owners.
“I guess I am just a history buff. The car is such a classy-looking car that looked cherished for most of her life. I can only image the first owner’s excitement,” he wrote.