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Bill Milliken, seated, prepares to cut his birthday cake, with his wife Barbara at his side.

In honor of 'a great friend'

Friends, fans wish Bill Milliken a happy 100th

WATKINS GLEN, April 17 -- It was a party a century in the making.

More than 100 friends, family and admirers were on hand Saturday at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen to celebrate the 100th birthday of Bill Milliken -- one of the few surviving racers from the first Watkins Glen road race in 1948, a former race official and a renowned engineer.

The visitors Saturday came from near and very far, the latter a category claimed by Geoff Goddard, a professor of Motorsport Engine Design at Oxford University in England, who has known Milliken since the 1970s and worked with him on and off on various engineering projects.

Milliken himself made the trek from his home near Buffalo, in a car with his wife Barbara, son Douglas, daughter Ann and Douglas's girlfriend, Donna Lewis. His birthday is actually on Monday, April 18.

When the guest of honor walked into the Research Center, it took him 15 minutes to work through the crowd of well wishers to an easy chair on the far side of the room. Once there, he greeted more people, then listened to speeches, made a short speech himself, cut his birthday cake, and then settled in to sign copies of one of his books, Equations of Motion, that was on sale at the Center.

*****

That is the outline of the celebration in a nutshell, but there was so much more going on, and it was in the words being spoken.

There was speaker Michael Argetsinger, an author of several racing books and a man who has known Bill Milliken for most of his life. The Argetsingers and Milliken go back about 65 years, said Michael's brother J.C. in introducing Michael. J.C. is president of the Racing Research Center.

"Bill has this great spirit," said Michael. "He always encouraged us (the Argetsinger children) to challenge ourselves and do interesting things. He's a great friend and a great man who I admire tremendously."

Michael read some excerpts about Watkins Glen from Milliken's Equations of Motion, and then concluded, his voice breaking: "Thank you for being an inspiration and a friend all these years."

And there was J.C.: "Bill had a profound impact on the Argetsinger family ... and was always generous of his time.

"He is truly a living legend who has always led his life at a hundred-mile-an-hour pace. His name is synonymous with racing and especially with Watkins Glen.

"He's an excellent engineer, excellent in everything he has attempted to achieve, and yet still has the heart of a boy. That's the magic of Bill Milliken."

And there was Michael Bentley, publisher of Milliken's Equations of Motion, who said that he found, in working with Milliken, that Bill was unlike most other authors. He was "open minded and flexible," said Bentley, "but it was clear he knew what he wanted to say and what was important to him. I never worked with anybody with as little ego as Bill."

And there was Milliken himself, who -- seated near the front of the room and looking out across the crowd -- took the microphone briefly to say: "I never knew I had so many friends. One not here who made it all possible was Cameron Argetsinger (late father of the Argetsinger clan, a racing pioneer, and a man with whom Milliken was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2005). Cam was the lifeblood of the whole action. If there was one person I would want to see here today, it would be Cam."

*****

Milliken has been many things in his long career -- most notably an engineer in the aerospace and automotive realms, as well as a race car driver. A graduate of MIT, he was in the aircraft industry for 20 years, including a stint during World War II as assistant head of Flight Test at Boeing Aircraft. That job included early flights of the prototype XB-29 and some B-17s.

He was later head of Flight Research at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, and there instituted projects derived from his research and inventiveness, including a variable stability aircraft and modern electrohydraulic flight control systems -- concepts far beyond the ken of the layman.

He took to driving in auto races (more than 100 of them), and became one of the founding fathers of Watkins Glen's competitions, but is perhaps remembered best in Watkins lore for one misstep -- a rollover in the 1948 race in his Type 35A Bugatti at what became known as Milliken's Corner. He crawled out from under the wreckage, uninjured, to the cheers of the gathered crowd. He later served as Chief Steward at the U.S. Grand Prix in Watkins.

All of that sparked an interest in automotive engineering, and the application of aircraft technology to it, and it led to four books. The first was written with his son Doug, present there at the Racing Research Center on Saturday and an engineering partner with Bill over the years.

*****

That first book was called Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, a text that Oxford's Goddard said is "required reading for automotive engineers. That book has to be on every engineer's shelf."

But it is difficult to understand, he said, even for an Oxford professor, because Milliken has always been far ahead of the engineering field.

"You never stop learning from Bill," he said. "I'm still trying to understand that book. Talking to Bill is like talking to Einstein. He's a genius."

Goddard said his own career was linked for years to Milliken's -- including work on the Ford Cosworth engine, for years a staple of Formula One racing. "And we worked on other things, on and off. I've known him a long time. He's a great friend."

This was, parenthetically, the first time Goddard had seen Milliken "in quite some time, a couple of years," and the first time the prof had ventured to Watkins Glen. "It's a one-off," he said.

He had flown into Toronto on Wednesday, and ventured to The Glen with friends. They were all returning to Toronto later Saturday, and Goddard was flying home the next day.

While here, he said, he doubted he would get up the hill to see the Watkins Glen International track, "but I think I'll visit the old course" -- the road course inaugurated in that 1948 race.

****

And then there was Michael Keyser, longtime racer and now an author who, after the birthday celebration, would be delivering a speech in the nearby Watkins Glen Elementary School auditorium as part of the Racing Research Center's 50th anniversary of Formula One racing in Watkins Glen.

Keyser presented Milliken with "a birthday card" -- a large sheet with two photos, one of Milliken's crash at Milliken's Corner, and one showing a crash by Keyser in one of his own races.

And Keyser presented his friend with something else: a limerick, "although I know a limerick is five lines, and this is six." He read it aloud:

There was a lad named Bill Milliken, who raced through the streets of Watkins Glen.
With his foot to the floor, he slid past a store, flipped over and went to bed sore.
Bouncing back on his feet, many aircraft he'd meet, applying his motion technique.
Now here in our midst, not far from the pits, he sits on the cusp of his hundredth.
"I want more!" he cries out, with a jig and a shout, still young at heart who'd deny him.
He's here at The Glen with many a friend, and the green flag says start, never end!

Photos in text:

Top: Jean Argetsinger, matriarch of the Argetsinger family, talks with Otto Linton, one of the few surviving members of the inaugural Watkins Glen race in 1948.

Second: Michael Argetsinger, a son of Cameron and Jean Argetsinger, who spoke movingly of Bill Milliken.

Third: Michael Bentley, publisher of Milliken's book Equations of Motion.

Fourth: Geoff Goddard of Oxford, who flew across the Atlantic to be with Milliken on this day of celebration.

Fifth: A birthday gift from racer-author Michael Keyser, showing two wrecks -- one by Keyser and one (on top) by Milliken in 1948.

Sixth: Bill Milliken listens closely to one of Saturday's many visitors at the Racing Research Center.

Otto Linton, who raced in the inaugural Watkins Glen race in 1948, issued some brief remarks, noting that he had known Milliken "since 1946 or early 1947." In the background, from left, are Bill Milliken, Bill's wife Barbara, and Jean Argetsinger.

Left: Bill Milliken upon his arrival at the celebration. Right: Milliken addresses the crowd.

Left: Otto Linton, who -- like Milliken -- raced in Watkins Glen in 1948. A native of Austria, he lives now in Pennsylvania. Right: Photos from Milliken's career were on display at the Research Center.

Oxford professor Geoff Goddard, left, speaks with Milliken shortly after Milliken's arrival at the Racing Research Center.