RIP Gary Meadors

[GregWeld]

He truly was a "good guy".... God Bless him.



https://www.good-guys.com/hotnews/?p=10338

[Spiffav8]

Sad day for sure.

[Ricochet]

Sad day for the Meadors family and the Hot Rod community! Truly a great ambassador for our hobby and will be truly missed!!

[glassman]

He came with us on the GG road tour in '13. Helluva nice guy, spent time with everybody. Wheeled his town n country, had to be a buckthirty to get to the top of a crest to take pics of us coming up the hill...

He was telling me when they did the first and second Goodguy nats in pleasanton they had to mortage their house to secure the funds required to "rent" the alameda county fairgrounds. It takes balls to do that, i mean, if the gamble doesn't payoff (or it rains? or something stupid) you simply loose your house.....nothing ventured, nothing gained....

Godspeed Mr Meadows....

[youthpastor]

Amazingly kind man who will be missed by our community. Tough news for sure.

[bret]

I hope this group understands and appreciates the significance of the hotrod life that Gary Meadors led. For those who can go back to the late 70's / early 80's...the car scene was not nearly as robust [or as fun] as it is today. On a national scale, there was NHRA drag racing, a few Car Craft Street Machine Nationals, some NSRA Street Rod events [pre 48 ONLY]...and that was about it. When Gary decided it was time to bring some life to all the "regular" hotrodders out there who wanted to mingle with like minded people, the Goodguys organization was born. Even for some of you who have rarely / never been to a Goodguys event, you have undoubtedly been influenced by those events. In my personal experience, Gary was always the one who nurtured fresh ideas about how to have fun with cars...the most obvious example being the Goodguys Autocross Series that he agreed to allow us to launch at his Nashville event in 2006. The success of that quickly inspired a change of build direction for their Street Machine of the Year awards at the Columbus show, migrating from polished waxers to some of the most aggressively functional vehicles ever built. Even if Gary did not necessarily share our specific taste in build styles [he wasn't much on air suspension for example, he thought the cars looked "broken" ] he certainly supported the diversity of true hotrodders everywhere. His vision launched and accelerated the careers of some very talented people...Troy Trepanier. Alan Johnson, Roy Brizio, Mike and Jim Ring, Dave Lane, Chris Smith, Kyle and Stacy Tucker, Jeremy and Phil Gerber, Bobby Alloway, Boyd Coddington, Rodger Lee, Justin Padfield, Jesse Greening, Tim and Carrie Strange, Chad Reynolds, and a slew of other people that I have not been able to mention. Some of these names you may recognize, some you may not, but every one has influenced our little segment of this hobby in a very positive manner. And to clarify...he and the Goodguys organization have been [and continue to be] absolutely crucial and critical to the success of Sharon and I, and the entire Air Ride Technologies / RideTech organization. Without his vision and support I am confident that we would not survived, let alone thrived over the last 20 years.
Gary leaves behind his wife of over 50 years Marilyn [who was usually attached to his side at most Goodguys shows] and his sons Marty and Marc as well as their families. He also leaves behind a VERY talented and dedicated family of Goodguys employees who embraced his vision of having fun with hotrods. Marc has run the Goodguys operation for a few years now and done it with a similar passion as Gary. While I will miss chatting with Gary about the business of hotrods, I look forward to continuing to enjoy the fruits of his passion, his vision, and his hard work that have inspired most of us to excel at this car thing.

Rest peacefully sir...I assure you I will create some tire smoke in your honor this summer...and have a good time doing it!

[Ron Sutton]

Originally Posted by bret

I hope this group understands and appreciates the significance of the hotrod life that Gary Meadors led. For those who can go back to the late 70's / early 80's...the car scene was not nearly as robust [or as fun] as it is today. On a national scale, there was NHRA drag racing, a few Car Craft Street Machine Nationals, some NSRA Street Rod events [pre 48 ONLY]...and that was about it. When Gary decided it was time to bring some life to all the "regular" hotrodders out there who wanted to mingle with like minded people, the Goodguys organization was born. Even for some of you who have rarely / never been to a Goodguys event, you have undoubtedly been influenced by those events. In my personal experience, Gary was always the one who nurtured fresh ideas about how to have fun with cars...the most obvious example being the Goodguys Autocross Series that he agreed to allow us to launch at his Nashville event in 2006. The success of that quickly inspired a change of build direction for their Street Machine of the Year awards at the Columbus show, migrating from polished waxers to some of the most aggressively functional vehicles ever built. Even if Gary did not necessarily share our specific taste in build styles [he wasn't much on air suspension for example, he thought the cars looked "broken" ] he certainly supported the diversity of true hotrodders everywhere. His vision launched and accelerated the careers of some very talented people...Troy Trepanier. Alan Johnson, Roy Brizio, Mike and Jim Ring, Dave Lane, Chris Smith, Kyle and Stacy Tucker, Jeremy and Phil Gerber, Bobby Alloway, Boyd Coddington, Rodger Lee, Justin Padfield, Jesse Greening, Tim and Carrie Strange, Chad Reynolds, and a slew of other people that I have not been able to mention. Some of these names you may recognize, some you may not, but every one has influenced our little segment of this hobby in a very positive manner. And to clarify...he and the Goodguys organization have been [and continue to be] absolutely crucial and critical to the success of Sharon and I, and the entire Air Ride Technologies / RideTech organization. Without his vision and support I am confident that we would not survived, let alone thrived over the last 20 years.
Gary leaves behind his wife of over 50 years Marilyn [who was usually attached to his side at most Goodguys shows] and his sons Marty and Marc as well as their families. He also leaves behind a VERY talented and dedicated family of Goodguys employees who embraced his vision of having fun with hotrods. Marc has run the Goodguys operation for a few years now and done it with a similar passion as Gary. While I will miss chatting with Gary about the business of hotrods, I look forward to continuing to enjoy the fruits of his passion, his vision, and his hard work that have inspired most of us to excel at this car thing.

Rest peacefully sir...I assure you I will create some tire smoke in your honor this summer...and have a good time doing it!

[ironworks]

Originally Posted by bret

I hope this group understands and appreciates the significance of the hotrod life that Gary Meadors led. For those who can go back to the late 70's / early 80's...the car scene was not nearly as robust [or as fun] as it is today. On a national scale, there was NHRA drag racing, a few Car Craft Street Machine Nationals, some NSRA Street Rod events [pre 48 ONLY]...and that was about it. When Gary decided it was time to bring some life to all the "regular" hotrodders out there who wanted to mingle with like minded people, the Goodguys organization was born. Even for some of you who have rarely / never been to a Goodguys event, you have undoubtedly been influenced by those events. In my personal experience, Gary was always the one who nurtured fresh ideas about how to have fun with cars...the most obvious example being the Goodguys Autocross Series that he agreed to allow us to launch at his Nashville event in 2006. The success of that quickly inspired a change of build direction for their Street Machine of the Year awards at the Columbus show, migrating from polished waxers to some of the most aggressively functional vehicles ever built. Even if Gary did not necessarily share our specific taste in build styles [he wasn't much on air suspension for example, he thought the cars looked "broken" ] he certainly supported the diversity of true hotrodders everywhere. His vision launched and accelerated the careers of some very talented people...Troy Trepanier. Alan Johnson, Roy Brizio, Mike and Jim Ring, Dave Lane, Chris Smith, Kyle and Stacy Tucker, Jeremy and Phil Gerber, Bobby Alloway, Boyd Coddington, Rodger Lee, Justin Padfield, Jesse Greening, Tim and Carrie Strange, Chad Reynolds, and a slew of other people that I have not been able to mention. Some of these names you may recognize, some you may not, but every one has influenced our little segment of this hobby in a very positive manner. And to clarify...he and the Goodguys organization have been [and continue to be] absolutely crucial and critical to the success of Sharon and I, and the entire Air Ride Technologies / RideTech organization. Without his vision and support I am confident that we would not survived, let alone thrived over the last 20 years.
Gary leaves behind his wife of over 50 years Marilyn [who was usually attached to his side at most Goodguys shows] and his sons Marty and Marc as well as their families. He also leaves behind a VERY talented and dedicated family of Goodguys employees who embraced his vision of having fun with hotrods. Marc has run the Goodguys operation for a few years now and done it with a similar passion as Gary. While I will miss chatting with Gary about the business of hotrods, I look forward to continuing to enjoy the fruits of his passion, his vision, and his hard work that have inspired most of us to excel at this car thing.

Rest peacefully sir...I assure you I will create some tire smoke in your honor this summer...and have a good time doing it!

Very well said. He made this industry what it is today.

Gary was the biggest car guy of them all. Just loved all kinds of cars.

RIP.

[COYBILT]

Let me start and say my heart goes out to the Meadors family.
I was hit quite hard by the passing of Gary, He was an inspiration to me. It is hard knowing I wont see him floating around the shows anymore.
I grew up just three blocks away from the alameda county fair grounds in Pleasanton. It was hard not to be apart of the action going on there when Gary and his team put on there usual four shows a year. It was 1998 and I was a wide eyed 12 year old kid on a 1972 schwinn sting ray with a dream to some day bring my own car to one of his shows. I did get to bring a car in 2004 when I was 16 but it wasn't until 2009 when I met Gary personally after coming back from the SEMA show in 2009 and what a hell of a nice guy he was. He was very excited to see a young man such as my self into the hobby and running a shop. He was very encouraging and uplifting, I can truly credit that man for my existence in the hot rod scene. The good guys rod and custom association makes it possible to have all kinds of enthusiast at one show, including kids which is our future. This man inspired me to make hot rods my hobby, lifestyle and living. If one man can influence someone that heavily then he did his job in my book.
I think bret mentioned a lot of great things about how Gary changed the industry for the better and brought all of us together. The quality of cars has risen in recent years due to good guys widely successful auto cross series.
Gary truly built a empire that has changed everyones lives and this is how he will be remembered. My only thing I wish I could have said to Gary was "thanks for all the good times at your events".
Sincerely,
Josiah Coy of Coybilt