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Just wondering who on the forum remembers Orin Dale Pearman, commonly called Dale Pearman, with a nickname of "Varoooom"
Dale passed away in July of 2003, and it doesn't seem that long ago.
Dale was a Corvette Enthusiast Extraordinaire. He was also one of the most passionate Corvette enthusiasts I have ever met, and I am very proud to have called him my friend.
Last but certainly not least, Dale was one of the those people that you either loved or you hated, there was no middle ground.
Dale ran a business called "Orin Dale's" out of his church in Medina, TN. Yes, I said church. He bought an old church building, and converted it to his garage, workshop, storage area, etc.
Dale was also probably the leading authority in the Corvette community on 1962 Corvettes. 1962s were his passion, and he owned a bunch of them over the years, including an original low mileage (something like 30K miles) maroon 300hp, 4 speed, black interior (I think) 62 that had never been molested.
Dale also owned (he actually rediscovered) 1962 Corvette 20867S101261. This is the only 1962 Corvette to have ever raced at Le Mans. Dale started the meticulous ground up restoration to "as raced" condition. The restoration was finished by Dale's nephew, Ken Hansen, about six month's after Dale's death.
Dale is most well know among the Corvette community for his black, saddle interior 1962 street car. The car looked like a well used, rode hard and put away wet, 1962 Corvette. And that is pretty much what happened to it. Dale did not care what the car looked like; he drove that car all over the country, putting something like 325,000 miles on the car. It was powered by a 400 cubic inch Donovan small block Chevy, with a 1962 Fuel Injection system, and a set of custom made coil packs (one per spark plug) that Dale made for the car. That car was scary fast. Dale used to "cook" fuel for it, back when you could get decent fuel to start with.
I recall one picture of Dale in his black 62, heading for a swap meet / NCRS event in Florida (I think). Dale had a set of original wheels to sell, along with a bunch of other stuff. He didn't have enough room in the car so he took the passenger seat out and stacked that area full of parts. And man did he have some parts. If you were looking for a rare NOS type part for a 62, Dale was usually your first call. His stuff was not cheap, but it was dead on ***** accurate.
OK, enough reminiscing about Dale. Back to my original question, who on the forum remembers Dale Pearman? Who actually met Dale in person, or attended one of his many Bloomington Gold seminars?
There is a point to all of this. I am considering nominating Dale Pearman for the National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame. It is not a trivial effort, and I have already run it by Dale's nephew Ken Hansen. Waiting on Ken to reply back.
But Dale and Ken did contribute to one of my most treasured memories within the Corvette community. The 1962 Le Mans car was being put on display at the National Corvette Museum. This was shortly after Dale's passing, and just after the restoration was almost finished. I say almost finished because there was one small detail left to do. Each of the tires was marked in white crayon with it's position on the car (i.e. L/F, L/R, R/F, R/R). Ken Hansen left the left rear tire unmarked as the car was on the display stand, and being prepared for display. When I approached the car that morning, Ken was standing nearby. He looked at me and said "The left rear tire is not marked yet", and he handed me a white crayon. I had the distinct honor and pleasure to put the final tire marking of "L/R" on that car. I handed the crayon back to Ken, and I was almost in tears. He smiled and said "Now it's ready to be displayed". That is a memory that I will treasure until I see Dale again. I have no doubt that he will then tell me what I did wrong when I marked the tire.
My memories of Dale are likely different than anyone here. He and I were a couple here in Tennessee from 1983 until 1996ish. I am the mother of his now 27 year old daughter. Someone mentioned "the church." The church had living quarters in the front and our daughter was conceived in that church. Upon her birth, he purchased a 1962 corvette to gift her on her 16th birthday. He bought this particular car because the engine was stamped on my birthday and he somehow surmised that the assembly date was his birthdate. That gift never happen. That car turned out to be the aforementioned LeMans car. He died when she was 9 and unfortunately most of her memories of him, come from picture albums. I am not known by many people. I only ever attended one Corvette event, Bloomington sometime in the 80's. It was hot, dusty, and if you knew Dale you knew we would squeeze a penny and get back change. So our accommodations were two lawn chairs in the back of his old 76 red Chevy truck. Needless to say I never had the desire to attend another Corvette event.
I recall going to one of his BG seminars back when Bloomington Gold was actually in Bloomington, IL. Probably 1989-1990? He was a character for sure. Didn't really know him but certainly know of him and his knowledge. He and Werner Grossmeuller did the seminar together, but I don't recall what the seminar topic was. Two incredible corvette guys for sure. Good luck with your nomination Ed.
Oh yes, I remember Dale and would give anything if he were still around.
He was my kind of guy. As mentioned by Ed, you either loved or hated him. There were a few times that I just stood "back in the shadows" and watched what was going on between him and some "armchair experts".
I remember Dale and some of his stories very well. All of his corvettes had VAROOM for a tag number all spelled different. He is missed to this day.
Mark
As the Carolina Road Trip to Lake Placid, NY was progressing up the Blue Ridge Parkway, Dale joined us for a distance. I think he stayed with us for that night stop (getting too old to remember). Sandy and I had a great time on my only NCRS Road Trip from south GA to Lake Placid and back in the 56 I had at the time (#2896).
Member JohnZ asked that the content of this post be moved to this thread!
Dale was a wonderful human being, and a treasure trove of '62 Corvette knowledge; he and I traveled many times, and we did joint Bloomington Gold Restoration Workshops together for many years. RIP, Dale. Some photos of better times below.
Last edited by vettebuyer6369; 06-17-2019 at 04:56 PM.
Thanks for the wonderful memories about Dale that many of you shared.
Ken is onboard with the NCP Hall of Fame nomination, so I am going to get the ball rolling.
Step 1 is to gather up information on all of his articles, publications, etc. related to the Corvette hobby. I started a list of these many years ago; I will see iof I can locate it and start again.
If anyone recalls an article, publication, whatever that Dale authored, please share that info with me.
Dale was a prolific writer, and write many interesting articles over the years. He was also the newsletter editor for the now defunct Tennessee Valley Chapter of NCRS, and wrote so very interesting and amusing articles for that publication as well.
As I recall, most of what Dale wrote either ended up in the NCRS Restorer magazine, or as part of a Bloomington Gold workshop.
This picture was taken at the
Holiday Inn in Bloomington where a lot of us stayed. A lot of Corvettes were stolen there during the BG show. They weren't going to get Dales. We made a lot of fun of his anti- theft device.
My memories of Dale are likely different than anyone here. He and I were a couple here in Tennessee from 1983 until 1996ish. I am the mother of his now 27 year old daughter. Someone mentioned "the church." The church had living quarters in the front and our daughter was conceived in that church. Upon her birth, he purchased a 1962 corvette to gift her on her 16th birthday. He bought this particular car because the engine was stamped on my birthday and he somehow surmised that the assembly date was his birthdate. That gift never happen. That car turned out to be the aforementioned LeMans car. He died when she was 9 and unfortunately most of her memories of him, come from picture albums. I am not known by many people. I only ever attended one Corvette event, Bloomington sometime in the 80's. It was hot, dusty, and if you knew Dale you knew we would squeeze a penny and get back change. So our accommodations were two lawn chairs in the back of his old 76 red Chevy truck. Needless to say I never had the desire to attend another Corvette event.
Dale was a big help to me when I was restoring the '58 fuel car. In fact he restored the distributor. He was a wealth of knowledge regarding C1's.
He's also the reason I joined Vetteheads, got to meet him and several other great people. Some on this forum.
06-17-2019, 10:12 AM
OT - Who remembers Orin Dale Pearman
Some photos of better times below.
