Tietge Family [Archive] - Boat Racing Facts Forums

Bill Van Steenwyk

11-22-2008, 08:50 PM

Ron:

Don't know how well you know this family, but they are one of the nicest groups of folks you would ever want to meet, plus boat racer's besides.

Ron, you met at DePue, and you have a picture of he and his Dad posted. He I believe, is the oldest son. Jim Tietge the other son, and I had the chance to become quite well aquainted in the 80's and he was running 250CC Hydro and RB Hydro at the time. He may have run other classes but I don't remember what they were if he did. He was a dentist in Cedar Rapids, Ia, when I first met him, and after listening to me complaining about I was not able to find a dentist that didn't torture me when cleaning or doing dental work, invited me to come to Cedar Rapids and he would show me what painless dentistry was. Well, I don't think he remembered my wife worked for a airline at the time with direct flights between St. Louis and Cedar Rapids, but I quickly made an appointment with him. He would come to the airport and pick me up, go to his office and do the work, and then we would stop for a beer on the way back to the airport. He was, without a doubt, the most pain free dentist I have ever been to, before or since. Even when shooting the novacain he had a way of pinching the cheek and you didn't even feel the needle. He was the only guy I ever let pinch me on ANY of my cheeks. Jim now lives on the east coast, and teaches dentistry at a state university. I'm not sure what Ron is doing now, maybe retired.

His Dad, Henry, continued to drive competively until he was in his mid 80's I believe, and he only quit because Ron and Jim were afraid something was going to happen to him. He was a very good driver, and many folks he competed against have told me he probably would have been a national champion several times, as he had the driving ability. What he did not do, was take money from the family and spend it on boat racing, so his equipment was sometimes not the latest and greatest, but he made the very best of what he had and was greatly respected around Midwest Powerboat and Hawkeye Stock Outboard in the years after WW II. I don't remember exactly when the boys convinced him to quit driving, but I think it was sometime in the mid to late 80's. He retired from his auto repair business in Ia., and moved to Florida, where he lived in somewhat of a retirement community. His wife had died some years previously, and he told me there were enough widows in the area where he lived that liked to cook, that he could go a month without eating the same place twice. He also said that some of the "desserts" were very nice also.

Henry was blind in one eye, but if you would ask him which one, he would never tell you. He figured if you didn't know which one it was, it might keep you from trying to get on the inside going into a corner, if you weren't sure. He was an excellent driver, who always got the best and sometimes more out of the equipment he had just by his driving ability, in addition to his mechanical knowledge. He used to make a number of things for boatracers, cast parts, mostly hardware I think, but he also made me a really nice cast intake manifold for my Yamato 80 RB that had the carb exactly centered in the middle, unlike the stock part. He passed away several years ago, but was very active until that time and made a number of trips to Depue after he quit driving. He was always a pleasure to be around as is the rest of the family.