1999

Henry M. Leland Award
of the Cadillac Motor Car Division

Yann Saunders, the compiler of The (new) Cadillac Database©  received in June 1999 the prestigious Henry M. Leland¹ Award, instituted in 1989, which is granted no more than once a year by the Cadillac Motor Car Company to a member of  the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc. for "acts of great merit" in preserving and researching the history of the Cadillac and La Salle marques.  The award was presented to Yann on the occasion of the annual Grand National meet of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc., held in Santa Clara, CA. 

   
Left: Ron Van Gelderen, twice past President of the CLC presents the award. 
Right:  back home in S. Carolina Yann pauses to admire the prestigious trophy

 
Above:  the trophy on its walnut base, with appropriate inscription
Below: the finely built 1/18 scale model of the 1906/7 Model K

   

Yann is the sixth recipient of the award.  The nominating committee composed of the past presidents of the Cadillac-La Salle Club, Inc. considered that his work on The (new) Cadillac Database© and his tireless efforts to promote the Cadillac and Cadillac's rich history both in Europe and in the USA was on a par with the achievements of the five prior recipients: Norman Jones, OK (1990), Hollis Weihe, CA (1991), the late Ken Moss of Sydney, Australia (1992), Richard and Bea Snyder, CA (1995), and the late Dave Holls², MI (1996).  There were no nominees in 1993, 1994, 1997 and 1998.   Joe Gildea Jr. of Dorchester Center, MA, got the award in 2000.

The trophy is a permanent one.  Up to 2000 it was an eighty-piece, 1/18th scale, gold-plated pewter model of the 1906-07³, single-cylinder Cadillac Model K  runabout.  In February of 1908, after a series of grueling tests, three cars of this class earned for Cadillac the prestigious Dewar Trophy, awarded by Britain's Royal Automobile Club (RAC)⁴.  In 2002, the supply of these rare and beautiful models was depleted (barring one unit that was donated to the Club's Museum and Research Center).   A new award was designed by CLC member Rich Esposito; it consists of a cup reminiscent of the original Dewar Trophy cup, mounted on a two-tiered cherrywood base with an inscription plate on the lower tier and a   bas relief casting of the 1907 Model K above it. The recipients of the new-styled award in 2002, 2003 and 2004 were, respectively,  Matt Larson, Fredus "Pete" Peters and Jo & Ted Raines.

The new Leland award,
starting in 2002

^{_______________________________________________________________
1}  Henry M. Leland founded The Cadillac Automobile Co., in 1901; the award named after him was introduced in
     September 1989;  read all about it in that month's Self Starter magazine
²  Yann  was saddened to learn that Dave had passed on, June 16, 2000; he had only recently retired as General
     Motors' Director of  Design; Dave had helped to design, inter alia, the fabulous fins on the most American of all
     American icons:  the 1959 Cadillac;

³  As a Cadillac historian, Yann could not help but notice that the trophy is erroneously described since 1989 as a 1908 model; in fact it depicts the Model K Cadillac runabout of 1906-07.  Indeed, all the 1908 cars had full-length running boards, whereas this car has still the small, round step plates of earlier single-cylinder Cadillacs.  More importantly, however, the serial numbers of the three Cadillac cars that competed in 1908 for the Dewar Trophy and which served as the model for this award were  #23391, #24111 and #24118; these three cars belong to the 1906-07 Model K series; the serial numbers for the 1908 Models S & T run from #24351 to #25832.  In addition, the trophy features the 1906-style, round-bodied headlamps, whereas the latter were replaced in 1907 with new, square-bodied lamps.
⁴  The firm won the Dewar Trophy a second time, in 1913  as a reward for introducing the electric self-starter as well as electric lighting on all Cadillac models starting in 1912.  No other automobile manufacturer ever equaled that record.

 

2000

E.P. Ingersoll Award
of the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH)

As the compiler of The (new) Cadillac Database© I was honored and proud to receive, in October 2000,  the E.P. Ingersoll Award of the Society of Automotive Historians (SAH), in recognition of excellence in presentation of Automotive History in a media other than print.

The presentation took place at the SAH's annual meeting and banquet held on October 6, 2000, at Hershey Country Club, PA. Regrettably, I was unable to attend the presentation in person and  was represented there by a friend.

The  award consists of an etched and engraved copper plaque on a black, velvet background, mounted in an oak frame. Below the Society's logo - the steam-powered artillery tractor or "fardier" built by France's Joseph Cugnot in 1770, which the society recognizes as the first self-propelled vehicle - the engraving reads:  The Society of Automotive Historians, E.P. Ingersoll Award presented to Yann Saunders, the compiler of The (new) Cadillac Database, in recognition of excellence in presentation of automotive history in other than print media - October 6, 2000.

     
Left: Mr. Cadillac proudly shows off his latest award (right); in his left hand, the most recent
edition of The (new) Cadillac Database© comprising more than 7,500 files and images
totaling  69.4 MB of disc space,  ready to be mailed to CLC President, Richard Sills

 

2001

Maurice Hendry Award
of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.

For the third time in three consecutive years, I was honored to be nominated again for the work I have done in compiling The (new) Cadillac Database©.  This time I got the Maurice Hendry Award, established in 1973 by the author of Cadillac - the Complete History, the definitive history of Cadillac automobiles.  The annually transferable award is an incentive to any member of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.,   who excels in journalistic contributions to The Self-Starter, the magazine of the CLC.

The presentation took place at the award ceremony concluding the annual Grand National meet of the Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc., held in Denver, CO.

The  award consists of a wooden plaque in the shape of Cadillac's traditional "crowned crest". In the center of the plaque is a circular, engraved crest reproducing the company's first trade-marked emblem, based on the coat of arms of Antoine De Lamothe-Cadillac, founder of the city of Detroit.   Above it, a banner reads: Hendry Award - for Excellence in Journalism, "Self Starter" Contribution.  Below it is affixed the silver shield that bears the names of the first recipients of the award, in 1973, Norm & Agnes Uhlir. Surrounding these primary ornaments are smaller, silver shields engraved with the names of the subsequent recipients including: David Holls (1975), Bryce Frey (1977), Roy Schneider (1978), C.D. Houston, Jr. (1979), Tom Cole and Bill Woodman (1980), Don Frolich (1981), Edith B. Childs (1983), Terence Wenger (1984), Leonard Piszkiewicz (1985), Ron Van Gelderen (1986),  Bud Juneau (1987), Carl Larry Steig (1988), Donald M. Carrico (1989), Elliott Klein (1990), Ansel Sackett (1992), Richard Sills (1996), Michaline and Matt Larson (1998), Bob Morrow (2000), yours truly (2001), Glen Zuchniewicz (2002), Robert A.M. Maidment (2003) and Angelo Van Bogart (2004).

The CLC Grand National, 2001 - Awards Presentation
That's me, center-stage, with awards man, Andy Zizolfo

       
Left: Mr. Cadillac proudly shows off his 2001 award; center and right: details of  group award plaque;
the year of award and name of each recipient is engraved on a small shield around the center emblem;

The individual plaque created in 2004 to reward each recipient
The inscription reads: The Maurice Hendry Award, presented
to Yann Saunders for excellence in journalistic contributions

 

2002

NAAM Award

 

The (new) Cadillac Database© wins NAAM Award
for the Cadillac-LaSalle Club Inc.'s Museum & Research Center

In 2002, the Cadillac LaSalle Club Inc.'s Museum & Research Center  was presented an award for website design by the National Association of Automobile Museums (NAAM) at that organization's annual conference. The award was given to the Museum for the Cadillac Database which was compiled and is maintained for the Club by Yann Saunders. This award is given annually by the NAAM for the best design and function of a web site by an automotive museum.

 

2004

NAAMY Award -2nd place

 

In 2004, the Cadillac LaSalle Club Inc.'s Museum & Research Center  was presented a 2nd place award by the National Association of Automobile Museums (NAAM) for material updates  to the Cadillac Database during 2003 and specifically the section on the 1953 Eldorado model, prepared almost exclusively for the Database by long-standing CLC member Matt Larson.

 

2015

Self-Starter - Author of the Year Award

 

In 2015, during the ceremonies marking that year's Grand National meet of CLC members in Brookfield, Wisconsin, Yamn Saunders was honored to receive this further award for his contributions to the Self-Starter, the club's monthly magazine.

 

Other Miscellaneous Awards

The (new) Cadillac Database© web site has received three further awards, one from the USA (the Links²Go award as a Key Resource among web pages devoted to Classic Automobiles¹), one from Sweden (the Car Site Award, below)  and one from the United Kingdom (the BuzzeZ Website Award). 

         

__________________________
¹ Selection as a Key Resource is an objective measure of how valuable a Web page is.

 

The Compiler of the (new) Cadillac Database
[ a condensed biography ]

Yann Saunders, the recipient of these awards lives with his wife, Gita, in Columbia, SC.  He emigrated to the USA in December 1997 after a long career in the international civil service. Born in Scotland, in 1939, the second of eight children (his mother was French and his father a Scot), Yann was educated in that country as well as in France and Switzerland. He finished high-school but has no college or university degrees, although he jokingly claims to be a master of many arts and a doctor of many philosophies. His only paper qualifications, he boasts, are a Swimming Certificate from Dumbarton Public Baths, in Scotland, attesting to the fact that he can swim two lengths (100 meters). He believes he was able to survive in the harsh world of the working class only because of his bi-lingual upbringing and his ability for picking up other languages.

Yann worked briefly in London, England, for the Washington Group of Hotels, then in Paris, France, for the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), for Price, Forbes, Neave & Co. and for the American Military International Insurance Association (AMIIA).  In 1963, he settled in Geneva, Switzerland, where he worked briefly for Caterpillar Overseas, S.A., before embarking on a thirty-year career with the International Telecommunication Union, in 1967 (the ITU is a specialized agency of the United Nations - UN). 

In 1986, he got an "unfortunate" promotion that switched his pay from Swiss francs to US dollars ...just before the dollar crashed! This would have had a disastrous effect on his retirement pension had he not fought the organization, tooth and nail, for the next ten years¹.

During his time with the ITU and owing to his fluency in both French and Spanish, sanctioned by his passes in the U.N. language proficiency examinations held at Geneva, in 1968, Yann was able to serve on occasion as a freelance translator and précis-writer with the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) as well as with a number of private firms in Switzerland and neighboring France. Yann has a passion for language and for languages; he has also quite a good command of German and can understand enough Italian to be able to translate from that language to either English or French ...especially if the topic relates to old cars!

This much-traveled, expatriate Scot has visited (in alphabetical order) Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Cameroon, Canada, Chile (including Easter Island), England, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, the Ivory Coast, Jordan, Kenya, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore, Spain, the Sudan, Switzerland, Tahiti, Thailand, Tunisia and the former Zambia.  But he is happiest at home with Gita and the children (Philip, born in 1963 from an earlier union, Jamie, born in 1973 and Kelly, born in 1975).

He became interested in Cadillac history and styling at the age of sixteen. Over a period of 50 years, since 1955, he amassed a vast collection of historical documents and photos related to GM's premier  marque. The bulk of the material in The (new) Cadillac Database© comes from that collection.
______________________________________________________________

¹ It caused Yann great mirth to learn, in 2001, that the acting chief of personnel, who had given him such grief for ten years, finally "got the boot"! He had been "removed" first from the Personnel Department after too many grievance procedures by discontented ITU staff members had met with success before the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT)! He had been put in charge of Telecom, the industry forum organized every 2 years by the ITU.   However, according to this excerpt from an article in an industry publication, he was "removed" from that job too and given just 5 days to clear his desk before taking up a new role as special adviser to the Secretary-General, a post without defined responsibilities and with no obvious reporting line to other ITU Staff.  That posting didn't last too long. Yann believes that his sworn enemy in ITU was given the choice between getting fired and submitting his resignation. It seems he chose the latter. Adding to Yann's mirth was the reported demotion of the ITU's then legal adviser who's spouse (a Senior Legal Officer at the United Nations Office in Geneva) got caught double-dipping in the UN's "dependency allowances" kitty, apparently with the full knowledge of her hubby! Judgment #410 of the UN Administrative Tribunal in case #432 makes interesting reading in this respect. It shows how lawyers can twist the meaning of words to the detriment of a plaintiff (in Yann's case) and to their own financial advantage (in UNAT case #432). It seems that neither husband nor wife had been able to grasp the concept of "integrity" enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and embracing all aspects of behavior of international civil servants, including such qualities as honesty, truthfulness, impartiality and incorruptibility.

 

 

    
Lest some of you might think that Mr. Cadillac is a stuffy, balding old book-worm,
these photos will prove that he is more of a long-haired occasional yachtsman (left)
and a not-quite geriatric Rock 'n Rollin' "sexygenarian" (right)

 

(résumé en français)

Le Prix Henry M. Leland
de la Cadillac Motor Car Division

En juin 1999 la firme Cadillac, une division de la General Motors, m'a attribué le prix Henry M. Leland, du nom du fondateur de la firme en 1901. Ce prix est remis au plus une fois par année, par l'entremise du Club Cadillac-LaSalle, Inc., à un membre de ce club pour faits méritoires en rapport avec la préservation et la recherche de l'histoire des automobiles Cadillac et La Salle.   Le prix m'a été remis à l'occasion du banquet offert en marge de la rencontre annuelle du club qui s'est tenue cette année là à Santa Clara, en Californie.

*****

Le Prix E.P. Ingersoll
de la Society of Automotive Historians

Le 6 octobre, 2000, en qualité de compilateur de la NBDC, j'ai eu l'honneur et la fierté de recevoir le prix E.P. Ingersoll attribué par la Society of Automotive Historians (la Société des historiens de l'automobile); ce prix est destiné à récompenser chaque année une présentation exceptionnelle d'un aspect de l'Histoire de l'Automobile par un moyen autre que l'imprimerie traditionnelle.

La cérémonie a eu lieu au Country Club de Hershey, en Pennsylvanie, à l'occasion de la rencontre et du banquet annuels de ladite société.  C'est à regret, cependant, que je n'ai pas pu recevoir le prix en personne et que j'ai dû être représenté par un ami.

Le trophée se présente sous forme d'une plaquette de cuivre sur fond de velours noir dans un cadre en chêne.  Elle comporte en relief le fardier de Cugnot datant de 1770, reconnu par la Society comme étant le premier véhicule auto propulsé; elle est gravée de ces mots: Society of Automotive Historians, prix E.P. Ingersoll attribué à Monsieur Yann Saunders, compilateur de la (New) Cadillac Database, reconnaissant ainsi son excellente présentation de l'histoire automobile par un moyen autre la forme imprimée - le 6 octobre de l'an 2000"

*****

Le Prix Maurice Hendry
du Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.

Pour la troisième fois consécutive en trois ans, sur proposition de Maurice Hendry, auteur en 1973 du célèbre livre, Cadillac - the Complete History, j'ai été primé en tant que compilateur de la NBDC par la Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.

Ce prix, remis en jeu chaque année, est destiné à récompenser tout adhérent du Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.  dont les contributions journalistiques publiées dans la revue du Club, le Self-Starter, sont de qualité exceptionnelle.  En l'occurrence, M. Hendry a estimé que la NBDC pouvait etre considérée publication exceptionnelle pour le club.

La cérémonie de remise du prix a eu lieu à l'Hôtel Mariott de Denver dans le Colorado, à l'occasion de la rencontre et du banquet annuels du Cadillac-LaSalle Club, Inc.

Le trophée se présente sous forme d'un grand écu en bois surmonté d'une couronne, étant de la même forme que le blason Cadillac utilisé sur les autos du même nom depuis le début du siècle; il comporte au centre une copie du premier blason Cadillac déposé en 1906 avec, au dessus, une bannière portant les mots  Prix Hendry - pour excellente contribution journalistique au Self Starter.   En dessous figurent les noms des deux premiers lauréats primés en 1973, Norm et Agnes Uhlir. Le pourtour est orné de deux douzaines de blasons plus petits, en argent, où sont inscrits les noms de tous les adhérents primés depuis lors, soit: David Holls (1975), Bryce Frey (1977), Roy Schneider (1978), C.D. Houston, Jr. (1979), Tom Cole and Bill Woodman (1980), Don Frolich (1981), Edith B. Childs (1983), Terence Wenger (1984), Leonard Piszkiewicz (1985), Ton Van Gelderen (1986),  Bud Juneau (1987), Carl Larry Steig (1988), Donald M. Carrico (1989), Elliott Klein (1990), Ansel Sackett (1992), Richard Sills (1996), Michaline and Matt Larson (1998), Bob Morrow (2000) et Yann Saunders (2001).

 

Le prix NAAMY
du National Association of Automobile Museums (NAAM)

En 2002, un prix NAAM fut attribué au Musée et Centre de Recherches de la Cadillac-La Salle Club, Inc. par le National Association of Automobile Museums (Association nationale des musées automobile) pour récompenser la Cadillac Database© compilée et tenue à jour par M. Yann  Saunders. Décerné chaque année, ce prix est attribué par la NAAM pour récompenser le site Web le mieux conçu et le plus fonctionnel créé par un musée de l'auto.  Un 2ème prix NAAM a recompensé les mises a jour apportées à la Cadillac Database en 2003 et notamment les chapitres consacrés aux modèles Eldorado de l'année 2003; ce travail a ét effectué en quasi totalité par Matt Larson un "ancien" du club.