Haynes to be inducted

Portland’s native son Elwood Haynes will be inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in July.
Haynes, inventor of America’s first commercially successful automobile, will be honored along with Roger Penske, founder and chairman of Penske Corporation and head of Team Penske Racing; Lucas di Montezolo, former chairman of Ferrari; and Ratan N. Tata, founder of Tata Motors of India and the United Kingdom.
A gala, black-tie, $500 per seat ceremony is set for 6 p.m. July 23 at the Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan.
Announcement of the hall of fame induction was made Thursday.
The nomination of Haynes to the Automotive Hall of Fame was shepherded by Tim Rivers, curator of the Elwood Haynes Museum in Kokomo.
Born in 1857, Elwood Haynes was one of six surviving sons of Judge Jacob March and Hilinda Haynes. Though he struggled as a student during his youth, he graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and returned to Jay County to teach school.
He later served as principal of Portland High School, and with the discovery of natural gas in Portland he was made superintendent of the local gas company. The Gas Boom then took him to Kokomo, where his later experiments led not only to the development of his Pioneer automobile but also the alloy known as Stellite.
The date of the first test drive of the Pioneer is sometimes listed as 1893 and sometimes as 1894. Haynes automobiles were produced in Kokomo until 1925.
Also to be recognized by the Automotive Hall of Fame is Rodney O’Neal, former chief executive officer and president of Delphi Automotive, who will be honored as Industry Leader of the Year.
The Automotive Hall of Fame is located in Dearborn, Michigan, next to The Henry Ford Museum.