MOrris MAN QUits
Minor club chairman who oversaw membership expansion calls it a day
Morris Minor Owners’ Club chairman, John Frye, is to step down after 40 years in this principal role. He is believed to be longestserving chairman of any club and has presided over the MMOC changing from an organisation of a couple of hundred members to more than 10,000 internationally today.
He says: ‘It could be said that 40 years in this role would be enough for anyone but I’ve loved every minute of it. The people in this club are just amazing. I do feel now that it’s time for someone else to take over.’ John recalls attending the club’s annual rally and AGM in 1978. ‘They were looking for someone at the meeting to be chairman and my wife literally pushed me forward,’ he says. ‘There have been so many changes since then. In 1978 members had owned their cars from new and were using them every day. No-one would expect the club to grow in the way that it has.’
John, who will remain in the post until later this year, reckons his greatest achievements have been his involvement with setting up the club’s concours scheme and also MOT – Minors On Tour – which has meant many forays abroad.
Club secretary Ray Newell, who has worked alongside John for 35 years, says: ‘John brought a sense of order and calmness to the club in the early days of its development and steered it through some turbulent times.
‘At its inception with founder Tom Newton at the helm there was a steady sustained interest in the fledgling organisation. However in the late Seventies and early Eighties the growth was phenomenal and at its peak it boasted in excess of 15,000 members. It was a great burden on a dedicated band of enthusiasts and John’s leadership and skills in building a team ethos saw the club through and laid the foundations of the club as it is today. No doubt he will remain part of the Morris Minor family and there will always be a welcome for him at future MMOC events at home and abroad.’
John still has the 1954 Morris Minor Series II called Victoria, that he bought while living in South Africa in 1973 and has now covered 526,000 miles – more than 300,000 of those with himself at the wheel.