Thomas Friedkin has passed away...

[Warbirdnerd]

Blue Skies Sir...

Thomas Friedkin, founder of what is now Houston's largest private company, has died.
Friedkin established Gulf States Toyota, an independent vehicle distributor, in Houston in 1969. He died March 14 at 81, but further details have not been made public.
Gulf States Toyota supplies hundreds of thousands of vehicles to dealerships in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma. The spokeswoman said dealers were informed of Friedkin's death this week.
Friedkin helped introduce the Toyota to drivers in the region at a time when the Japanese automaker wasn't nearly as popular in the U.S. The manufacturer's mid-century Corolla model was boxy and colorful, unlike today's sleek models in muted shades.
As the vehicles picked up speed here, so did the business. Three years after Friedkin signed a distributor agreement with Toyota Motor Sales, Gulf States Toyota had sold 5,000 cars and trucks to 14 dealerships.
In 1979, the company held the No. 1 spot in imported car and truck sales. It had sold nearly 66,000 vehicles by the end of that year.
In 1998, Gulf States Toyota outsold even Toyota Motor Sales USA in import car market share. A year later, Friedkin was inducted into the Texas Business Hall of Fame.
The momentum pushed Friedkin onto Forbes' annual list of billionaires. The magazine in 2013 valued his net worth at $1.7 billion.
Friedkin was also an avid pilot. He appeared in the cockpit in several movies, including "Blue Thunder" and "The Rookie," according to the IMDB movie website.
Friedkin's son, Dan, has succeeded him as chairman and CEO of the company, which reported $8.4 billion in revenue in 2015.
Thomas Friedkin is survived by his wife, Susan, and four children.

Obit quoted from here:
http://www.chron.com/business/article/G ... 021405.php

[OD/NG]

Sad day, few people realize how many warbirds that the Friedkin's have owned, bought and had restored over the years. Mr. Friedkin started collecting and restoring warbirds back in the late 60's, before it was "in vogue" or popular to do so at a time when anti-war sentiment from the war in Viet Nam was at an all time high. I put Mr. Friedkin in the same ranks as Ed Maloney, Earl Reinert, Walter Soplata, and Dave Tallichet, who all started preserving warbirds long before they were popular or became excessively expensive.

Blue skies, Mr. Friedkin - I tip my hat to everything you and the family have done for the preservation of warbirds for all of us to enjoy!

On a side note, with Mr. Friedkin's passing, does this make Steve Hinton the last surviving pilot who flew on the "Black Sheep Squadron" television series?

[Pat Carry]

RIP

[RacingMustang]

RIP, sir.

And I'm with OD/NG - every time I turn around it seems there's another Friedkin-restored plane. We owe him and his family a debt of gratitude.

[Lynn Allen]

Blue skies sir, didn't his father own PSA airlines and Mr. Friedkin flew the line there?

[OD/NG]

Blue skies sir, didn't his father own PSA airlines and Mr. Friedkin flew the line there?

Yes, that is correct:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_H._Friedkin

[gflinch]

I'm sure everyone realizes that Dan Freidkin of the Horsemen p-51 demo team is his son. Here is one of the videos featuring Thomas, seemed like a nice guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNGUdO_2Ydk

[Jerry O'Neill]

Very sorry to hear this. A good man and warbird lover. My condolences to Dan and the Friedkin family.

[wendovertom]

I'm sure everyone realizes that Dan Freidkin of the Horsemen p-51 demo team is his son. Here is one of the videos featuring Thomas, seemed like a nice guy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNGUdO_2Ydk

Condolences to the Freidkin Family.
On a different note it is too bad the Horsemen team fell apart. They also put the now defunct Air Show Buzz (ASB.tv) website together - those were the days.

Tom P.

[TAdan]

Tom, looks like the Horsemen are still active aside from some personnel changes.

http://www.horsemenflight.com/index.html

[RacingMustang]

I saw them fly in 2014 at the Chino show - two acts, one in Mustangs the other in nearly identical Sabres.

Best act of the show. I believe it was Hinton, Friedkin, and Shipley. (?)

[Rob Mears]

Mr. Friedkin also had a small role in the Clint Eastwood movie "Pale Rider". A very sad loss for the warbird community.

[ignomini]

Don't know who was flying on the day, but the Horsemen show I'll always remember was the 2012 Chino show with two P-51s and a P-38 lead. First time I recall seeing two dissimilar airframes flying together in a precision aerobatic routine. Amazing.

OK, yes, I've seen plenty of heritage flights, but they're not doing loops and rolls in formation.

Condolences to the Friedkin family.

[JohnH]

The Friedkin in the recent Horseman routines described here is Dan Friedkin, Tom's son. Tom Friedkin flew the camera Copter in the Gauntlet Copter chase scene and there's a cool pic of him with Fx director Rexford , Eastwood , Fritz Maines as well the Copter gun pilot Jim Gavin in Red Rock Canyon.