When Ron Patterson’s 1971 Cutlass Supreme won first place in its class at this summer’s Oldsmobile Club of America National Meet in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he had a feeling his late father was looking on with pride.
Nicole Raucheisen
Ron Patterson sits in his 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass outside his home in Naples.
The Cutlass with 55,000 original miles on its Rocket V8 350 engine was making its national debut. Ron calls his car an “Unrestored Original Survivor” because the Viking blue exterior, black cloth interior, shocks, brakes, head lights and tail lights are all original.
Earlier that day, as Ron was preparing his Cutlass for the judges’ inspection, he deliberately left exposed an old 3-inch scratch below the tail light.
“I will never fix that scratch,” Ron vows. “My father’s spirit is there. It’s very meaningful to me.”
Ron views his Cutlass as a testament to the close relationship he had with his father, Harry Patterson, and the values his father taught him through example.
“He came here from Italy through Ellis Island at age 17 with 25 bucks,” Ron says. “He had a sixth-grade education and spoke no English.”
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Nicole Raucheisen
Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Nicole Raucheisen
Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Nicole Raucheisen
Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Nicole Raucheisen
Left: An informational poster for Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass, which he displays at car shows, includes an overview on the car as well as photos of the original warranty and bill of sale from 1971. Right: Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Nicole Raucheisen
The original bill of sale for Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Nicole Raucheisen
Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Ron Patterson's exact replica of his unrestored 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Ron Patterson's 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass.
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Ron Patterson's trophies for his 1971 Viking blue Oldsmobile Cutlass sit on display in his garage.
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Special to Grandeur
Ron Patterson’s 1971 Cutlass Supreme won first place in its class at this summer’s Oldsmobile Club of America National Meet in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
Harry worked his way up in the steel mills of northwest Indiana, got married and became a father. As a boy and a teenager, Ron shared many hours with his dad talking about cars and working on them, teaching his son traditional values of hard work, caring for family and always doing the right thing.
In 1967, Ron went to Vietnam to serve as a combat engineer, armed with a Purdue University degree.
“We would get car magazines from the States,” Ron recalls, “and we would all talk about our dream cars — a Mustang or a Chevelle or a GTO. Once I saw a photo of the Cutlass Supreme, I promised myself I would do whatever it took to get this car when I got back from Vietnam. It became my reason to get home in one piece.”
After his discharge, Ron began working as an engineer for Inland Steel, saving money from each paycheck until he had the $4,000 for a new 1971 Cutlass Supreme.
“I asked my dad to come with me to the dealership to help me negotiate the price,” Ron says with a laugh. But when he began reading the long list of options Oldsmobile offered, his father’s frugal side emerged. “I wanted to get the new remote control to adjust the driver’s side mirror from inside the car. My dad’s response was ‘Why spend $12 when you can just roll down the window, stick your hand out and tilt the mirror any way you want it?’”
He also told Ron that spending $455 for air conditioning was a waste of money, because “our summer only lasts three months. Why can’t you just roll down the windows?”
Ron remembers he stuck to his guns on the options he wanted, and that his dad skillfully helped negotiate the final cost from $3,858 to $3,350. Ron saved the 47-year-old order sheet, owner’s manual and warranty. He displays the documents at car shows on a poster board detailing his car’s history.
“One of my dreams,” Ron says, “was to keep this car as long as I could.”
While working in the steel mills, he parked his Cutlass in the garage and took a daily driver to work and on his road trips. After his father retired, Ron recalls, “he was bored. So he waxed the car by hand with Simoniz paste wax. He probably put a dozen coats of wax on that car.”
To this day, Ron has never washed the Cutlass with soap and water. He simply wipes the car gently with a clean chamois.
Nicole Raucheisen
Ron Patterson's parents in an undated photo.
Ron’s father even installed a wood-burning stove in the garage, so they could handle basic maintenance duties together during cold Indiana winters.
But one day, when Ron arrived home from a business trip, his 80-year-old father approached him and said he had done something “really bad” to the Oldsmobile.
“He was almost in tears,” Ron remembers, “when he took me to the garage and showed me a 3-inch scratch just below the tail light, where he had backed into a light pole in a parking lot.”
Arthritis in Harry’s neck had prevented him from turning his head far enough to see the pole.
Six years later, when Ron and his mother were visiting his father in the hospital, Harry asked to speak to his son alone. “He told me he had lived a good life and that he had done all the things he wanted to do. Then he asked me to promise him two things: ‘First, take care of your mother.’ And then he asked me to promise I would take care of the car for as long as I lived. I promised him I would, and those were the last words we said to each other. He died the next morning.
“So this car is a member of our family, and it always will be.”
Ron has entered the Oldsmobile in regional car shows in Indiana and in the Chicago area, winning 55 awards in the past 10 years. His trophy case displays a treasured award from the 2010 Cedar Lake, Indiana, Car Show, where the judges gave Ron their most prestigious honor: the Best of Show trophy. The Cutlass was ranked first in a field of 110 competing cars and trucks.
After moving to Naples with his wife six years ago, Ron joined the Cool Cruisers, the West Coast Muscle Car Club and other car clubs to meet some new car guys and show his Oldsmobile to car fans at local cruise-ins and car shows.
If you go to one of the club’s upcoming events, you might get to see Ron’s Viking blue ’71 Cutlass Supreme close up, complete with the scratch that will always be there, like a signature from his cherished father.