Veteran Automotive Journalist Al Rothenberg Passes Away

DETROIT, June 24 -- Veteran automotive journalist Al Rothenberg, 85, of West Bloomfield, Michigan, who just a year ago was recognized with the Metro Detroit Society of Professional Journalists' Lifetime Achievement Award, died of cancer Wednesday (June 23, 2004) in an Indianapolis hospital.

His tenure as a working journalist will be hard to match.

Born (5/11/1919) as Alvin Marvin Rothenberg in Cleveland but always known simply as Al, he got his start on the Geneva, NY, Daily Times as a 16-year-old covering high school sports (unpaid, of course). He attended Syracuse University for a while but dropped out for available factory work during the Depression.

It was the U.S. Army during WWII that re-agitated the ink in his veins. He was a reporter, columnist and editor for various Army Air Corps publications in the U.S. and Germany.

After discharge, he got a job on the Cleveland News first in the advertising department helping promote Chevrolet's Soap Box Derby and then became the paper's auto writer in 1948 "because [he] knew all the Chevrolet dealers in town."

His first assignment on the auto beat, when there were by his account only a handful of newspaper auto writers nationwide, was covering introduction of the legendary 1949 Oldsmobile and its new Rocket V8 engine; his story was on the elimination of six-cylinder engines from Olds' lineup.

Al stayed with the Cleveland News as auto editor until 1960, when the paper folded. He then moved over to the rival Cleveland Press, a Scripps- Howard paper, as auto editor, where his auto coverage was syndicated. As a result of a strike at the Press in 1962, he moved to Detroit as business editor of Look magazine, a post he held until that publication ceased operating in 1971.

From 1972 to 1976, he was editor of Chrysler Corporation's various in-house magazines. For a couple of years, he was manager of the Automotive Information Council, then joined the Automobile Manufacturers Association as media relations manager, a position he held until "retiring" in 1989.

Subsequently he continued active as a free-lance writer, contributing to the Chicago Tribune, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Ward's AutoWorld and TheCarConnection (a web magazine) among others. He was well-known for his first-hand acquaintance with -- and ability to reach -- practically every living present and past auto industry executive.

He also produced the automotive events calendar published by the Automotive Press Association.

In addition to last year's SPJ recognition, Al won two Detroit Press Club Foundation awards for best magazine journalism, once for Look and once for Ward's AutoWorld.

He is survived by daughters Mrs. Beth (Dr. Jerry) Lande of Carmel, Indiana; and Mrs. Joan (Rick) Slavin of Long Grove, Illinois, and three granddaughters and two grandsons. His wife Dody died in 2000 and his brother Dana nine years ago.

He was a member of Temple Kol Ami in West Bloomfield. Services will be held at the Ira Kaufman Chapel, 18325 Nine Mile (west of Northwestern) in Southfield, Michigan, on Monday, June 28, 2004, at 2:30 p.m.

The family suggests contributions in Al's memory to Temple Kol Ami, Karmanos Cancer Institute (Detroit), Michigan Hospice or American Cancer Society.