Morrison Historical Society and the City of Morrison, IL, will collaborate to recognize their most famous and widely-admired resident: Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick. To validate this claim, Chad Starbuck of Fulton, IL, will offer a program at Morrison’s Heritage Museum, 202 E. Lincolnway, Sunday, October 20, 2024, beginning promptly at 1:30 p.m. Doors open at 1:00, via a ramp at the back of the building. There is no fee; and refreshments will be served.
There will be a short DVD and Starbuck’s PowerPoint presentation. He will have items on display and Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick copies for sale.
Starbuck has been a Beswick friend and fan for decades. Like Beswick, Starbuck has always been a Pontiac fan; he has “a couple 1966 GTOs; a 1998 Trans-Am GTA; a 2006 Pontiac GTO; a Pontiac Collection”. He drives “them on weekends and to carshows/cruises.” He has never raced. His vehicle of choice today is a Ford Edge.
In 1999 he moved back to Illinois and joined the Pontiac Club in the Quad Cities. He was introduced to Arnie by Dean Fait, author of the book Arnie “The Farmer” Beswick. That year Beswick asked Starbuck to travel with him and sell merchandise; unload and reload a car into the trailer; answer crowd questions. “I absorbed Arnie’s stories as an historian to keep his tradition alive.”
Starbuck supplied this 2015 photo (of three smiling guys), taken in Indianapolis, IN, at a Mecum [ car] Auction. “We are wearing our uniform shirts, standing by a car Arnie did engine work for.”
