By Steve Ritchie
Many of us can say we’ve taken our turn leading a service club or community organization for a term of a year or two.
But not many can say they spent nearly a half-century as president of such an organization.
Wes Oster can.
Oster stepped down in January as president of the Silverton Flywheels, one of the pre-eminent car clubs in the Mid-Valley area. Founded in 1961, the Flywheels is still going strong today with about 80 members who put on several major car shows each year, including the Macleay Inn, Homer Davenport Days and the Silverton First Friday cruise-ins.
Oster, one of 20 young men present when the club began, and was elected vice-president in the Flywheels’ first election of club officers on Feb. 16, 1961. Six months later he was elected president, and, seemingly, has been club president ever since.
Fellow Flywheels member Keenan Foraker said Oster is a big reason the club is more active and larger than ever.
“Larry Brown was the first president,” Foraker said. “Then when Wes was elected president the train came through every other year and railroaded him . . . but he lives and breathes the club.
“He is a PR man and goes to car shows and talks to everyone. He is a big part of why the club is still going strong. Wes is one of the nicest and best guys you could ever hope to meet.”
The 77-year-old Oster, a Silverton native, downplays any suggestion that he did anything extraordinary by serving as president for so long.
“I’ve kind of decided to step down,” Oster said. “I’ve been president of the club for so long . . . We’ve got an awfully good organization with some really good people . . . Chuck DeGuire – he’s one of the original members – was the vice-president and is now president. He’s a really good guy.”
Asked how he got “roped into” serving as president for five decades, Oster has no answer, saying, “You know, I really don’t know for sure to be honest with you.” But he doesn’t rule out coming back as president in the future.
“I told them I needed a break for a year,” Oster said, adding with a laugh, “I don’t know if they’ll have me back.”
While the Flywheels have been around for 53 years, the car club went through a period of inactivity during the 1970s before being revived by Oster and others. According to the written history of the club, “. . . Wes Oster spearheaded reactivating the club with a few old timers and a few newly-interested car nuts. They put on a car show at the Silverton Elks Lodge in 1980 and 1981 with mild success. Then for three years they held a car show for Homer Davenport Days on the Eugene Field School playground with a few more cars attending.”
The big turn-around for the club came in 1985 when Jerry and Danny Miller of the Macleay Inn asked Oster to put on a Cruise-In there. Oster accepted the challenge and for the past nearly 30 years the event has been very popular show for auto enthusiasts throughout the mid-Valley, and now attracts 200 cars each year.
One way Oster has been able to attract vintage car owners to Flywheel shows is to attend the shows put on by other clubs. Oster, his brother Ed, and other club members have been to car shows up and down the West Coast and as far east as Nashville, Tenn. Oster says this keeps him busy through the summer months, and estimates he’s traveled 34,000 miles in the last few years alone.
Oster is proud of the club’s “really good working relationship” with the automotive program at Silverton High School, and, especially, the approximately 50 scholarships the club has provided for SHS seniors who have excelled in automotive classes. Many of the scholarship recipients have gone on to pursue automotive careers.
A 1954 SHS graduate, Oster has lived in Silverton throughout his life except for a brief time after he was first married. After a career making cabinets, he worked for the city for 21 years before retiring in 2001. For the last 17 years of his tenure with the city, he was in charge of the water treatment plant, and, in an odd bit of job duties, was also responsible for parking meter maintenance.
While Oster complains about his memory deserting him too often, he clearly still has a passion for the Flywheels and he gets excited talking about club plans for this year.
“We do a food drive every year for SACA. This year’s drive will be March 22 at Roth’s. We’ll be doing all right, we’ve got some irons in the fire, and it’s going to be another good year. We’re getting some younger people, some new blood.”
