Couple holds onto car — and each other
Half-century of marriage, medicine and the Mustang marks the class of 1968
Retired Port Coquitlam physician Bob Kochendorfer remembers 1968 for many reasons. He got his medical licence, married high school English teacher Judy Nelson and took delivery of a new special-order Mustang.
Dr. K was raised on a farm in northern Alberta in a family of two boys and two girls. He was impressed by his father’s 1951 “Rocket 88” Oldsmobile with its powerful V8 engine. “It went like a rocket,” he recalls.
But the family was hit with tragedy when his father was felled by a heart attack when Bob was 12. His older brother took over the farming with young Bob’s help. But Bob was more interested in science and graduated high school at the top of his class.
While attending the University of Alberta medical school in Edmonton, he met Judy while she was on a summer student exchange before entering her final year in the University of British Columbia’s education program. She returned to Vancouver at the end of summer. In December, she sent the medical student she had met in Edmonton a Christmas card. The card had a return address. That ignited a long-distance romance.
Kochendorfer ordered his new car in April 1968 in anticipation of his graduation in June when he would become a licensed physician.
“I had seen an ad for the 1968 Mustangs that caught my attention,” he says, recalling events almost exactly 50 years ago. “I borrowed $5,000 and ordered the car in the colours that were on the Mustang that was advertised.”
His Wimbledon White Mustang coupe with a black vinyl roof and dark red interior was built in the San Jose Ford factory and cost $3,600 plus licence and taxes. It was delivered to Kochendorfer by Shirley Ford in Edmonton in the summer of 1968.
He sent photos of the car to Judy, who was beginning her career as a high school English teacher in Vancouver. The car has “Wide Ovals” he wrote in his letter, referring to the performance-rated Firestone tires that his Mustang was shod with.
The couple rode in the car on their first date. Judy was impressed. Kochendorfer accepted a hospital job in Vancouver and the couple married on Dec. 29, 1968. The Mustang was their honeymoon car.
“It was an odd time to get married, but we worked it out that we could both get four days off for a honeymoon,” Judy recalls.
Taking up residence in a city apartment, Kochendorfer could walk to work at Vancouver General Hospital. The Mustang became a sensation when Judy drove it to school for the first day back in January.
“My students knew me as Miss Nelson and I came back to school as Mrs. Kochendorfer. One of my students asked if they could call me Mrs. K. And they just loved the car,” she says. “I still love the car.”
The Mustang provided family transportation for years as the couple’s son and daughter grew to be teenagers learning to drive in the Mustang and Kochendorfer went back and forth to the hospital visiting patients and delivering babies.
Over the years, the rust worm had burrowed deeply into the old Mustang and it was relegated to the garage. When Kochendorfer retired two years ago at the age of 74, one of the first things on his bucket list was the restoration of the Mustang.
The professional restoration took more than a year with the goal of producing a “new” 1968 Mustang. The results are spectacular, with the couple feeling young again while cruising in their “showroom fresh” Mustang.
When asked why they kept the car for 50 years, Judy replies, “The Mustang has been such a big part of our lives. We’re very loyal people and hang onto things. We still have our house that we bought 40 years ago, our Mustang and we still have each other.”
Kochendorfer’s 1968 medical school grads are planning their 50th-anniversary reunion at Vancouver’s Bayshore Inn this September. It will have been half a century since Bob took delivery of his sparkling new 1968 Mustang.
“It was a very good year and the car marks a milestone,” he says.
He will drive his freshly restored 50-year-old car to the reunion as a surprise for the estimated 50 medical school classmates who will be present. It will definitely represent the class of ’68.