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The SHELBY AMERICAN
Fall 2016 87
Year” in 1998.
Currie also occupied his time
with rock-crawling, drove with his
wife, Evelyn, in “The Great Race”
twenty times, winning overall once.
He always had ‘32 Ford roadsters or
coupes and had a ‘65 GT350 which he
drove in La Carrera Panamericana
three years in a row. He was 87 when
he passed away of natural causes at
home in Yorba Linda .
NELDA NEALE
March 25, 2016
Nelda was the wife of noted Dal-
las, Texas automotive artist Bill
Neale. They had been married for 67
years. Bill was a lifelong friend of
fellow Texan Carroll Shelby but
Nelda actually knew him first; they
both went to Woodrow Wilson High
School in Dallas before she met Bill.
Neale referred to her, fondly, as
“Scrap Iron” and when he did, she
pretended to be irritated but she
was actually beaming. It was an act
the two of them had perfected over
Speech. After getting married and
becoming a parent, she easily moved
from being a teacher to a mother
and homemaker and supported her
husband as his fine art career took
off.
Nelda enjoyed Bill’s involve-
ment in cars as much as he did and
often accompanied him to races, art
shows and SAAC conventions. She
was always gracious, warm and
kindhearted. She will be profoundly
missed by everyone who knew her.
She was 88 and died peacefully with
her family around her.
the years. She graduated from North
Texas State University with both
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in
HOMER PERRY
June 21, 2016
Former Ford Racing Program
Manager Homer Perry was as much
responsible for Ford’s LeMans victo-
ries an anyone else, but he tended to
work in the background. He wasn’t
in the spotlight like a driver and no
magazine articles were written
about him. However he played an
important role and he was what is
known as “a mover and a shaker.”
His job was to make things happen.
Ford’s GT40 program eventually got
funneled through Homer Perry.
He retired in 1985 and moved to
Florida. When his wife Betty passed
away in 2004 he moved back to
Michigan to be near his daughter.
When Ford won LeMans in June he
was with his granddaughter. He was
in and out of consciousness but
when the Ford GTs crossed the fin-
ish line, his granddaughter whis-
pered in his ear, “
Grandpa, they
won! Ford won at LeMans
.” He
smiled and squeezed her hand.
When he passed away from compli-
cations relating to pneumonia a few
days later. He was 96.
working for the company until he re-
tired.
Perry was born in 1920 in
Spruce Pine, North Carolina and
when he was five years old his fam-
ily moved to Detroit. His father went
to work at Ford’s Rouge Plant.When
he was nineteen he joined the com-
pany as an apprentice mechanic. He
continued to climb the Ford ladder,
Before Ford began its Total Per-
formance campaign in the early 1960s,
Perry worked at Ford’s proving
grounds, supervising the preparation
of cars in the Mobil Economy Run and
Pure Oil Performance Trials. When
Ford began its racing program, he was
given the responsibility of coordinat-
ing the activities of everyone involved
with the GT40 project – Shelby’s peo-
ple, Holman-Moody’s people, Alan
Mann’s people and Ford designers and
engineers. Everything having any-
thing to do with the tactical end of