I had previously said that I searched for Von K as if I was looking for a long lost relative, not knowing if he was even still alive. It has been over 30 years since we have seen each other. Well, it did not take too long before I located him, comfortably enjoying a retired rural lifestyle on 20 acres somewhere in the eastern part of the US. He enjoys his privacy, so I am not going to reveal too much, but am happy to say that he is over 80, healthy, still driving (much slower now) and only gave up his racing hobby a couple years ago. His last German supercar was an Audi S4 wagon, that he tweaked to over 425 HP. He surprised more than a few folks in that sucker I'll bet! The photo above is the man himself ca. 1960
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Very sad to say that Von K passed from this earth in April, 2016. I dearly regret that I did not get a chance to meet him again before he passed.
Harald von Keszycki | 1925 - 2016 | Obituary
Harald von Keszycki
July 08, 1925 - April 22, 2016
Harald von Keszycki died on Friday, April 22, 2016 in Virginia after a lengthy and courageous battle with Parkinson’s disease and kidney failure. Throughout his final days he was surrounded by his loving family and dear friend Mark Shattuck.
Born in Gross-Krutschen, Kreis Trebnitz, Silesia, and separated from his family during WWII, he was reunited with them in Munich after the war. Making ends meet during the post-war reconstruction, Harald worked as a travel agent for American Express. His fortunes changed when one of his repeat clients, Henry Priester of Davenport, Iowa, recognized his potential and offered him a loan of $250 and facilitated Harald’s passage to America.
Shortly after emigrating to NYC in the early 1950s, Harald met his future wife, Eleanor Lathrop Starring. He and Eleanor were married on May 9, 1953 and moved to Troy, NY, where Harald attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the couple bore two children. Harald graduated in four years with a Master’s degree in aeronautical engineering and began a successful career with the Lockheed corporation. The family moved to California in 1958.
A lifelong automobile enthusiast and racer, Harald was well-known for a series of Porsche and Audi racing cars he built and drove throughout his life. His famous Von K Turbo, built in the mid-1970s, is remembered and revered to this day in Porsche circles as a one-man engineering tour-de-force without equal. An accomplished driver, Harald continued racing until he was eighty years old.
Harald and Eleanor moved to Virginia in 1999, to be near their daughter and her family. Their son and his family followed in 2006.
Harald was preceded in death by his parents, Walter Guenther and Irene Alexandrine von Kenschitzki, and his brother Carl Heinrich von Keszycki of Munich, Germany. Harald is survived by Eleanor, his two children, Mark von Keszycki of Great Falls, VA, and Alexine von Keszycki of Paeonian Springs, VA, and five lovely grandchildren.
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