Authors!  Profiling Flint ANd Genesee County's Rich Literary Tradition

Our Third Author in This Series of Articles:  Lawrence R. Gustin

Flint and Genesee County is famous for a variety of things:  cars, coneys, athletes, and music.  In fact, the arts also loom large in the area’s legend. But among the arts, writing and writers are often left out of the conversation. That's an almost unforgivable omission, because the art of writing is among the Flint area’s greatest gifts to the humanities.

Indeed, books by Flint authors have covered the broad spectrum of American history and interaction for well over 100 years. But this literary gift isn’t just relegated to Flint-based or birthed authors. Rather, books about Flint and Flint people also factor in to the equation to craft a rich mosaic of expression exemplified by written words.

This experience includes a vast palette of genres including the obvious one - books, but also poetry, screenwriting, and music. Some of this has found its audience locally, others have had national appeal, and in other cases international attention. As a result, the work has gained notice for its skill, and diversity of topic and author.

by Gary L. Fisher, Vice President, Genesee County Historical Society

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Other Articles Series:

Arthur Jerome Eddy

​David Blight

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Lawrence R. Gustin:  Bringing Back a Forgotten History

As a writer for The Flint Journal from 1960 to 1984, Larry covered everything from high school sports to important news and cultural events. However, an article series on a long-forgotten Flint business and community leader led to a singularly unique niche as both a writer and storyteller. In 1972, a series of articles Gustin penned on William C. ‘Billy” Durant, founder of General Motors, revitalized local interest in his story and led to a book published in 1973, Billy Durant: Creator of General Motors.


That award-winning book kick started Flint’s movement to remember and honor it’s past, while also telling it to the rest of the world. The story included Gustin’s own involvement with several of the principals, including multiple interviews with Durant’s widow Catherine, Durant’s last personal assistant, Aristo Scrobogna, Charles Stewart Mott, Arthur Sarvis (who as a young reporter used to stalk Durant downtown at a coffee shop he haunted), Clarence Young, the Flint historian who previously carried Durant’s banner, and others.

Gustin went on to become the Assistant Public Relations Director for Buick. He also continued to write great books about Flint and the people who made it a worldwide powerhouse, including The Buick: A Complete History with co-author the late Terry Dunham, and David Buick’s Marvelous Motor Car, with Kevin Kirbitz, which was the very first biography of the founder of the first Buick automobile company.
 
During the Bicentennial year of 1976 he also created the Picture History of Flint, which was widely distributed and remains a mainstay of many Flint maven’s personal bookshelves.​

Gustin interviewing C.S. Mott

Saving History by Taking Action

Larry, a Flint Central graduate, has said he “never learned much about Flint history growing up here”.  That in itself is deserving of a book. Especially when you consider that Gustin grew up in Flint when Durant was still very much alive and running a bowling alley and lunch counter in downtown Flint after losing everything in the Great Depression. The reality is that the history was not celebrated and had somehow been deleted from the public consciousness. It’s startling to realize that something so monumental could be totally buried and forgotten, especially when it was still very much a going concern, in its absolute golden age. as was the case when Gustin was growing up.

At that time, the city was considering tearing down Durant’s original offices, the Durant-Dort Carriage Company Headquarters, that he shared with business partner, J. Dallas Dort, when founding their carriage companies Flint Road Cart Company and the Durant-Dort firm. The offices and environs are considered the ancestral home of General Motors, and in many ways what the Buick company ultimately became, as well as Chevrolet.

The Durant-Dort Carriage Company Headquarters as it looked in 1977 (built in 1895)

Still, Flint intended to destroy the buildings in the mid-70s, and likely would have had it not been for Gustin’s intervention. Durant’s Second Street childhood home and the later Garland Street house had already been razed.  So had the original property of Charles Stewart Mott, and the “Millionaires Row” Kearsley Street homes of Mott, David Buick, Louis Chevrolet, Albert Champion, Walter Chrysler, and ABC Hardy, already long gone. It was in keeping with the city’s practice to demolish historical structures with little to no public outcry, except from hard core history preservationists, almost always to no avail.

The Durant-Dort building hung in the balance.

A Revitalization of the Entire Campus

So, Gustin launched and led a campaign from his position at The Flint Journal to save it. Not only was he successful, but it led directly to the Durant-Dort becoming Flint’s only National Historic Landmark. General Motors later became involved, and with a significant capital infusion revitalize the entire campus, including what remained of the original factory buildings that are now called Factory One.
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The Durant-Dort Carriage Company Headquarters today

The National Historic Landmark plaque

Along the way he helped create the Buick Gallery and Research Center at Sloan Museum, made a significant donation of historical Durant papers, and is one of the longest serving members of the Genesee County Historical Society among his other relationships.
 
In 1999, Larry received a Distinguished Service Citation from the Automotive Hall of Fame, and was elected to the Hall of Fame of Michigan State University’s campus daily, The State News, among many other accolades.
 

When sculptor Joe Rundell completed his statues of Flint’s auto pioneers, Larry was called on to write the inscriptions. His lengthy involvement in making the history of Flint known to the world is a singular life of service to a shared history that most would never know had his passion not infused the pages of first his journalism, and then his books.

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Larry continues to tell the Durant, Buick and Flint story whenever he can. We’re all the better for it in ways we can probably still not ever properly thank him for. Some writers write solely to inform, or to sell books and make money. Others write to persuade or promote a cause. Larry wrote to fill a historical void.  He wrote to bring the past to the future and to elucidate the incredible event that led to a stunning community success story.  Telling that tale—bringing it to life—is an achievement that will last for generations.

Listen to Larry's interview here on
​Fish & the Flint Chronicles

Some of Gustin's Work

Written by:  Gary L. Fisher

About Gary:  A man of many talents, Gary runs a wealth advisory office in downtown Flint, he is a Flint historian, the radio host of Fish & the Flint Chronicles, and President of the Genesee County Historical Society.