Emergency vehicles – ambulances, fire trucks, police cars – spend their lives racing to the aid of people. But when emergency vehicles fall ill, who looks after them? Well, people of course, people like Mike Riefer. Mike, of Owensville, Missouri, rescued this 1952 National Pontiac ambulance that had done double duty as his town’s primary responder and been ignominiously retired to a barn.
As hearse and ambulance maven Gregg D. Merksamer writes in his book Professional Cars (Krause Publications, 2004) Pontiac was “the most successful medium-priced professional car platform of all time.” This reputation dates from as far back as 1930, when this Oakland ambulance, by Pontiac’s parent, was built. (Note the clever removable door post to facilitate side loading.) From the 1930s through the ’40s, Pontiac professional cars were built by such specialty houses as Superior, Flxible and Eureka. It was the sedan delivery model, new for 1949, that put Pontiac proudly in the professional class. Some builders, like Guy Barnette and Company of Memphis, converted the delivery in its original form as a compact responder. Barnette and some others, like Memphis neighbor Economy Coach, did stretch models as well.
National Body Manufacturing Company of Knightstown, Indiana, was one of these, offering an Ambulette model on the standard wheelbase, an Imperial with 30-inch stretch, and variations in between. In 1952, Milford H. Winter, operator of the Gottenstroeter Funeral Home in Owensville, ordered this National Pontiac, the first dedicated ambulance that Owensvillians had ever seen – earlier operators used combination coaches, hauling both the living and the dead as needs dictated. Winter used it until 1960, when he bought a new air-conditioned National Chevrolet. The Pontiac went to Owensville’s volunteer fire department where it served until 1971. Sold for $101.00, it soon suffered a cracked cylinder head and was put into storage.
That’s where Mike found it some years later. Convincing the owner to sell, he extricated the car and began a two-year restoration. Although as the owner of an auto repair shop Mike plenty of has experience, many of the unique items on the National ambulance presented special challenges. Wood framing for the interior panelling called for the services of a cabinetmaker, and some materials proved unobtainable so substitutes had to be found. By 2003, Mike had completed the restoration and showed it to an approving Mr. Winter. That year the car earned a Gold Award at the Pontiac Oakland Club International meet in Illinois. Immaculate both inside and out, it won Best of Show in 2005 at the International Meet of the Professional Car Society.
National Body Company, through a couple of name changes, continued to build on Pontiac and other chassis, finally moving to Chevrolet Suburbans as car-based ambulances gave way to heavier chassis. Professional Pontiacs, too, faded from service, some of the last built by Superior in the early 1970s. This 1975 minihearse by A.G. Solar of Dallas represents the last throes of Pontiac professional cars.
The CarPort is indebted to professional advisor Gregg D. Merksamer and to Mike Riefer and Steve Loftin for the use of illustrations in this feature.
