Class News
Bill Fink ’64, legendary importer of Morgan cars, dies in tragic fire
February 12, 2020
Note from Tony Lavely, ’64 Class Secretary:
As is our custom, we report the death of any classmate on our In Memoriam page with an obituary, if available, and remembrances by classmates. This week, the tragic death of Bill Fink ’64 was so widely reported and circulated by so many classmates that we are posting his death in the Class News section as well.
William R. Fink ’64, 1943-2020
Bill Fink
1964 graduation
Bill Fink died on February 10, 2020, the victim of a fire in his Bodega (CA) home. Below are two news articles which serve as remembrances. You may also wish to read a Class news article from 2004 titled “Bill Fink ’64 and the Mystique of the Eccentric Morgan.”
Bill Fink, importer of vintage Morgan sports cars, dies in Bodega house fire
Santa Rosa (CA) Press Democrat
February 10, 2020
A Bodega man known for importing British sports cars to the United States died in a fire that destroyed his home early Monday morning, February 10, 2020.
Bill Fink, 77, was known in the car community for buying and selling vintage British sports cars hand-built by the Morgan Motor Company through his Bay Area business, Morgan Cars USA. Fink even worked to get Morgan cars to meet American emission standards, said his longtime friend Kevin Rivette.
“He’s the only reason that Americans were able to get Morgans for a long time,” Rivette said.
Rivette knew Fink for about three decades through the Morgan Sports Car Club of Northern California and even bought a car from him. He said Fink was an affable guy, “always good for a laugh,” who had been “hooked” on Morgan sports cars ever since he studied in England as a Rhodes Scholar in the 1960s.
Rivette was stunned when he heard his friend had died in a house fire.
Just after midnight, authorities received reports of a fire at his Bodega home. When volunteers from the Bodega Fire Department arrived, heavy flames were coming out of every window of the rural, one-story house on the 800 block of Salmon Creek Road, said Shepley Schroth-Cary, the Gold Ridge and North Bay Fire Chief.
Fink’s wife, daughter, and two friends who were visiting were able to get out safely. It appears Fink was trying to put out the fire, but became weak from all the smoke, said Charles Rivers, a fire inspector with Sonoma County Fire Prevention.
Firefighters initially entered the home to try and save Fink, but they were driven out by the flames before completing the search, Schroth-Cary said. A large bay window collapsed, and the rush of air intensified the blaze, forcing commanders to take a more defensive approach from outside until it was safe to enter the home again.
“That decision was made because of firefighter safety,” Schroth-Cary said. “There was a really rapid fire spread throughout the house.”
Fink was found not far from the doorway in a large common area of his house, Schroth-Cary said.
Preliminary investigation shows that the fire may have been caused by a furnace in the guest bedroom, Rivers said. He said he suspected the furnace became so hot it ruptured a propane line, which sparked the fire.
“A number of the volunteers and first responders knew the victim. That’s hard for anyone that responds in a rural setting,” Schroth-Cary said.
“And in an effort to save somebody, they were close to the victim before being driven out by fire. That’s always tough when you’re close but not successful.”
Evelyn Casini, a longtime Bodega resident, called Fink a “good neighbor” and a “fine person.”
The day before he died, Fink attended a Morgan Club event called the annual “Oyster Run,” where he met with other members, including Rivette, in Marin County before they drove their cars together.
“The day before he passed, he was doing something he truly loved — driving Morgans,” Rivette said.
Bill Fink, the man who saved Morgan In the US, dies at 77
For a long time, you couldn't buy a new Morgan in the US. Bill changed that, and saved the British sports-car legend.
Road and Track
February 12, 2020
Back in the early 1970s, you couldn't buy a new Morgan in America. Technically, Morgan exported cars to the US in 1970, but the company couldn't get an exemption from federal safety standards for the Plus 8 after that first year. Company boss Peter Morgan wasn't bothered, so Morgan left the U.S. market. The sports cars remained forbidden fruit for the enthusiasts who fell for their particular old-school charm.
Bill Fink, who died this week in a fire at his home in Bodega, California at 77, made it his mission to get the Plus 8 — and Morgan — back to America. Fink was first exposed to the Malvern (England) company as a Rhodes scholar studying at Oxford and competing for the school's rowing team in the Sixties. As Car and Driver wrote in a 1977 article, Fink began buying Morgan Plus 8s, converting them to left-hand drive, and shipping them to the US while living in England. When he returned to San Francisco, he partnered with English car mechanic Steve Miller and founded Isis Imports in the city's red-light district in 1968.
He discovered that if a Plus 8 could be converted to run on propane, it wouldn't have to meet any emissions standards. So, he built a propane-fueled Plus 8, tested it, and proposed the idea to Morgan in England. After some back and forth with the company and the U.S. government, Fink started importing new Plus 8s in 1977.
"There's a good argument that, literally, he kept Morgan Malvern alive," longtime Road & Track technical editor Dennis Simanaitis said. "The U.S. was, if you date back to the Fifties and Sixties, a major market, then along came the various regulations that complicated the life of a small manufacturer such as Morgan. And it was Bill who really singlehandedly kept Morgan alive in the U.S., and in a sense, kept Morgan alive."
As former Road & Track editor Thos L. Bryant explained in a 1977 article, Morgan shipped Plus 8s and 4/4s to Isis Imports sans fuel tanks. Fink and his team added a propane tank and safety equipment so the cars could be legal in America. Simanaitis tested a number of Fink's Morgans, and praised the quality of workmanship. Fink continued importing Morgans over the years, eventually moving to Pier 33 in San Francisco's Embarcadero. But he wasn't just an importer. Fink was a huge figure in the Morgan community, restoring older cars and making LS-powered hotrods out of old Plus 8s.
Fink maintained his shop in San Francisco, though he changed his company's name from Isis Imports to Morgan Cars USA, and eventually opened up a second shop near his home in Sonoma County. He was a consistent presence at Morgan events. Just last weekend, he participated in the Morgan Sports Car Club of Northern California's annual Oyster Run.
Simanaitis, himself a former Morgan owner, got to know Fink over the years. "He was a gentle man, and you could take that as gentleman and as gentle person," he said.
Bill is survived by his wife Judy and his stepdaughter Tcherek. He will be missed.