How to “Hatch” a Flint Revival with Local History

The new statues are the work of Joe Rundell, who lives in a Flint suburb and is a retired Chevrolet machine repairman.

Thousands of GM auto jobs were lost in Flint, Michigan during the last two decades, but it is getting a new kind of individual presence in increasing numbers. Thanks largely to the energy of Al Hatch, a retired Rockwell Automation senior account manager, life-size bronze statues of auto pioneers with local backgrounds are popping up all over Flint, birthplace of GM and for decades a center of production for Buick and Chevrolet.

So far statues of Louis Chevrolet (July 2012), David Buick (December 2012) and GM founder William C. “Billy” Durant (August this year) have been unveiled along Saginaw Street, the main street in downtown Flint. Another, of Walter Chrysler, who was president of Buick in Flint before he started Chrysler Corporation arrived a few weeks ago at Flint’s Bishop Airport.

Still another, of Charles W. Nash, who headed the Durant-Dort Carriage Company in Flint and then became president of Buick and GM before he founded the Nash automobile, is expected to be erected at the airport soon. Among others in process are Charles Stewart Mott, Flint’s greatest philanthropist as founder of the Mott Foundation and a GM board member for 60 years; Albert Champion, founder of AC Spark Plug; Otto P. Graff, a prominent local Ford dealer; and Arthur G. Bishop, a banker and GM board member whose name is on the airport. Even more are in the planning stages, including likenesses of UAW leaders, minorities and women.

The new statues are the work of Joe Rundell, who lives in a Flint suburb and is a retired Chevrolet machine repairman. Rundell was widely known for his sideline of inscribing expensive firearms with elaborate designs until he turned his creative talents to full-size statues at the age of 71.

Bay City Powertrain Plant Manager Joe Mazzeo (left) and Flint Powertrain Plant Manager Kathleen Dilworth with the 1.4-liter engines their plants will be producing next year.

Hatch, a Flint native, was the force behind the creation in 2005 of “Back to the Bricks,” an impressive array of vintage car displays and a community celebration on the brick pavement of downtown Flint.

Even though it is staged annually on the same weekend as the Woodward Dream Cruise a few miles to the south, Back to the Bricks has become a huge success, spawning a week of events and drawing hundreds of thousands of people downtown.

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