Steve Linden, collectible automobile knowledgeable, Basic Automobile Physician columnist, dies at 65
Steve Linden, whose collectible automobile ardour shifted into an appraisal enterprise with a prime gear popularity, died shortly after his final Basic Automobile Physician column was revealed in Newsday. He was 65.
Linden’s experience on classic and muscle vehicles was his passport to adventures with wealthy, well-known and common automobile buffs, household and mates stated.
He visited warehouses throughout the nation, hidden in the course of nowhere, reached with cryptic directions, like flip on the third tree and take a tiny street to an underground storage holding $20 million in autos. He helped begin an auto museum in Kuwait and managed an import of Cadillacs in Australia. He spoke on tendencies on the Concours d’Class, the worldwide competitors for collectible vehicles.
“There was all the time a type of wonderment when he would name me up and say ‘You’ll by no means consider the type of vehicles I’m seeing,’ ” stated enterprise accomplice and school good friend Peter Neumann.
Steve and Pamela Linden drive off on their wedding ceremony day in his 1972 Mercury Cougar.
Credit score: Pamela Linden
“He all the time discovered pleasure in understanding the vehicles themselves, the historical past and the event of the expertise,” stated Neumann.
Linden, of Patchogue Village, died April 27 after being identified with a uncommon and aggressive bladder most cancers in January.
Reliability was his trademark, those that knew him stated. “Early is on time and on time is late,” was a standard chorus, his spouse, Pamela Linden, stated. “He by no means wished to maintain any individual ready as a result of that will imply he was unreliable. He stated what he would do and did what he stated.”
After restoring, shopping for and promoting a whole bunch of vehicles, his credibility zoomed in 2008 when celeb automobile collector Jay Leno invited him to his storage for a video look to advertise Linden’s new e-book. “Automobile Amassing: Every little thing You Must Know” stemmed from the appraiser’s concern for folks being cheated and overpaying as curiosity in classic vehicles boomed. He may get dozens of calls earlier than beginning work within the mornings and infrequently gave free recommendation, household and mates stated.
“He wasn’t in it for the final bit of cash,” stated his good friend Joe Buzzetta, a automobile dealership proprietor. “He was in it to do an trustworthy job. He did it as a result of he favored to do the suitable factor and assist folks.”
The enhance from Leno underlined Linden’s pitch in 2010 for a column of automobile essays and recommendation in Newsday’s promoting part. In a single column, he voiced his opinion about classics tucked beneath tarp for many of the 12 months: “We personal ‘driver high quality’ vehicles. These vehicles should not afraid of the chilly and they are often cleaned in the event that they get soiled. So why don’t we use them year-round?”
He surprised readers in his March 3 column by bidding goodbye within the final paragraph.
One fan wrote again in an electronic mail, “You might have all the time prolonged the courtesy of responding to my emails to you and never simply with a type letter.”
“Your tales,” one other wrote, “have taught me many classes about life . . . and the sheer enjoyment an inanimate object can deliver.”
Linden’s expertise with mechanics began younger. As a toddler, he handed instruments to his father as he repaired the household automobile at their Oceanside house. At 13, he commuted earlier than college in his small motorboat to a job at a close-by boatyard, the place he scraped barnacles off vessels, painted and helped boaters. In highschool, he labored nights pumping fuel.
Steve Linden, in an undated photograph, stands by his Plymouth Barracuda.
Credit score: Pamela Linden
He graduated with a psychology diploma in 1979 from Stony Brook College, labored in his father’s lithograph enterprise, then began a printing enterprise.
He launched his appraisal consultancy in 1990. At one level, he edited Hemmings Motor Information, a month-to-month journal thought-about the “bible” for collectible automobile fans. He leased his autos to the movie and media trade for shoots, together with a Bob Dylan documentary during which a close-up of Linden’s leg was the singer-songwriter beginning up a Triumph bike, and an Italian Vogue centerpiece of a scantily clad mannequin posed towards Linden’s automobile — a pink 1972 Mercury Cougar convertible that his father had owned.
His different deep loves have been his son, Joshua, whose weekly Eagle Scout meets he attended for years, and animals, particularly canines, which he may by no means go with out petting.
Linden stated her husband demonstrated “absolute loyalty” to household, mates, his community of specialists and even his Cougar, which now goes to his son.
“My coronary heart skipped a beat for 30 years each time he walked into the room,” she stated. “He was such a superb particular person and intensely beneficiant.”
In addition to his spouse, Linden is survived by his son, Joshua of Austin, Texas.
He was cremated, and a memorial service was held Thursday at Robertaccio Funeral House in Patchogue. Donations could also be made to Sweetbriar Nature Heart in Smithtown.
