{"id":765,"date":"2021-01-16T08:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-16T16:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/?page_id=765"},"modified":"2026-07-02T07:39:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:39:27","slug":"founding-members","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/founding-members\/","title":{"rendered":"Founding Members 1982 &#8211; Present"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Click on the members name for more information.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\r\n<hr \/>\r\n\r\n\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Jack-Gormley-4.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Jack Gormley <\/span><\/a>(Digger)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Jack \u201cThe Digger\/the Ghoul\u201d was Jack Gormley, owner and operator of Gormleys mortuary in downtown Sacramento established since the gold rush. Jack was an early AMCA member back in the fifties with a nice collection of early Indians, pre-16 m\/c\u2019s, three Crockers, an early small tank and a later big tank, plus a rare speedway unit. I knew Jack before I relocated up here from SoCal as he and his best friends, Shorty Thompkins and Armando Magri used to travel down for the SoCal chapter\u2019s La Mirada meet every October starting in 1975.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Shorty-Tomkins.pdf\">Shorty Tomkins<\/a><\/span> (Shorty)\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Shorty Thompkins and his brother Whitey were founding members and real racers of much acclaim. Shorty worked with Bud Catlett at Harrah\u2019s as their motorcycle restorers. Shorty was a welder for PG&amp;amp;E before he retired.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/William-Seadler.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">William Seadler<\/span><\/a>\u00a0(Willie)\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div>Willie Siedler was also an early founding member. He was the owner operator of a Chevron station on 16th Street and had a huge collection of early automobiles stored south on Franklin Blvd.<\/div>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Joseph-Sarkees.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Joseph Sarkees<\/span><\/a><\/strong> <strong>(Joe)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Joe Sarkee who owned the Triumph dealership on Broadway near 24th Street, since 1946 was also a founding member. Joe sponsored a bunch of local racers like Rich Hardmeyer, Cy Homer, the Thompkins brothers and more.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Edward-Hawtrey.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Edward Hawtrey<\/span> <\/a>(Spider)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Ed Hawtrey whose hat said \u201cold fart\u201d and was fairly correct in its announcement. He was an early founding member and m\/c collector, plus a collector of odd early sport cars like Allards and Cuttinghams.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/John-Schaefer.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">John Schaefer <\/span><\/a>(Big John)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>John Schaefer was our first president and a founding member who relocated from SoCal where he taught at L.A. Technical school and was a great machinist. He was also a member of the LA 45\u2019s of which also was Paul Bigsby, the pattern maker and designer for Albert Crocker and inventor of the electric guitar Whammy bar. One of John\u2019s students at LA Tech was none other than Willie G. Davidson. John was my mentor and I miss our many conversations. He was a Harley JDH, two-cam specialist.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Ross-Thompkins-Armando-Magri.pdf\">Ross\u00a0Thompkins<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(Whitey)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Ross Thompkins and his brother Shorty were founding members and real racers of much acclaim. Shorty worked with Bud Catlett at Harrah\u2019s as their motorcycle restorers. Shorty was a welder for PG&amp;amp;E before he retired.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Ross-Thompkins-Armando-Magri.pdf\">Armando Magri<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Armando was a founding father and was the local HD dealer since 1952 when he acquired the dealership from the former owner, Frank J. Murray, who owned it since the teens.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Richard-Fairclo.pdf\">Richard Fairclo<\/a> <\/strong><\/span><strong>(Rich)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Al-Lauer-Edward-Thaddeus-Edward-Catlett.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Al Lauer<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">Al Lauer was a founding member and the local Indian dealer and speedway racer from the late teens until Indian rolled up their cords in 1953.<\/div>\r\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Al-Lauer-Edward-Thaddeus-Edward-Catlett.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Edward Thaddeus <\/span><\/a>(Ed)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Ed Thaddius was a founding member who worked at McClellan AFB as a<br \/>machinist. He outfitted all the B-25\u2019s that flew off the aircraft carrier just east of Tokyo for the famous 30 seconds over Tokyo bombing run as payback for Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\r\n<p><strong>\r\n\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Al-Lauer-Edward-Thaddeus-Edward-Catlett.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Edward Catlett<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #800000;\">\u00a0<\/span>(Bud)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Bud Catlett was a founding member and m\/c collector. He was also a collector of pre-sixteen brass cars and motorcycles. He also was a picker for the Harrah\u2019s collection in Reno. He was quiet and a real gentleman. He used to serve along with his brother as Sacramento motorcycle police officers.<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n<li><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><strong>Dick Borchert<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>Dick Borchert, a machinist at Aerojet in Rancho Cordova was also an early founder and m\/c collector and a really nice guy too.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Click on the members name for more information. Jack Gormley (Digger) Jack \u201cThe Digger\/the Ghoul\u201d was Jack Gormley, owner and operator of Gormleys mortuary in downtown Sacramento established since the gold rush. Jack was an early AMCA member back in the fifties with a nice collection of early Indians, pre-16 m\/c\u2019s, three Crockers, an early &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/founding-members\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Founding Members 1982 &#8211; Present<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-765","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1779,"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/765\/revisions\/1779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fortsutteramca.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}