August 19, 2023 – 1:00pm

Join us at the Lincoln Highway Experience for the third edition of the 2023 “Lincoln Highway Talks” series. Duesenberg Crash historian Ray Wotkowski will present “Fred Duesenberg’s Final Journey” which explores the details of the automobile tycoon’s fatal crash on the Lincoln Highway near Jennerstown PA on July 2, 1932, the people involved, and the legacy which will always remain in Schellsburg, Jennerstown, and Johnstown, PA. In Wotkowski’s well researched book, many myths have been corrected with factual evidence to support the findings. The accident site is 13 miles east of the Lincoln Highway Experience.
Fred Duesenberg (1876-1932) was an avid bicycle builder, world record holding bicycle racer, engine builder, race car builder, and race car driver. Duesenberg was the winner of the Indianapolis 500 in 1924, 1925, and 1927, and was the builder of the only American car to ever win the Le Mans Grand Prix in France. Duesenberg went on to co-found the Duesenberg Automobile & Motor Company and designed some of the most luxurious and highest performing American automobiles.
Ray Wotkowski, is a life-long antique car enthusiast from Sidman, PA. He is the current editor of the Keystone Packards’ “Panorama” newsletter and the author of his book “Fred Duesenberg’s Final Journey.” Although he has been called a journalist and an author, Ray considers himself a writer. Ray is a retired Industrial Arts teacher of ten years and a junior high school principal of twenty-six years in Forest Hills School District. Ray is the proud owner of several antique vehicles: three Packards (’28, ’30, ’40), a ’58 Studebaker Silver Hawk, a ’58 BMW Isetta, a ’52 Ford truck, a ’36 Buick ambulance, and a ’48 Willys Overland Jeepster.
Admission is $5 per person, no reservation required. Cookies and coffee will be available for a suggested donation of $1.