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Dave Mungenast

October 1, 1934 – September 20, 2006

There are very few people in the motorcycle industry who did not know Dave Mungenast, and those who knew him held him in high regard. He got his start working as a motorcycle mechanic for Bob Schultz in St. Louis during his high school years, and in 1965 he opened his own Honda dealership on Gravois Road in South St. Louis. It is a little known fact that Mungenast gave Honda its first American national championship title when he won a 24-hour marathon at Riverdale Speedway in 1964. He went on to ride nine IDSTs and the Baja 1000. And though he became a leading automobile dealer with award-winning dealerships for five brands, he never abandoned motorcycles. He maintained his Honda motorcycle, watercraft, and power products franchise to this day, and expressed his love for motorcycles by assembling a large and beautiful collection which he has placed on display at his Classic Motorcycles LLC museum in the heart of the old neighborhood where it all began.

People in our sport and industry knew Dave for his open and friendly manner, and his loud, custom-made shirts featuring images of motorcycles. But this was not the only Dave Mungenast. Dave functioned competently in several distinct communities, and in each he achieved the kind of success that most of us are unable to wring out of a single endeavor. All of us knew he made his real living in automobile sales, but few of us realized that he was as well-known and admired in that community as he was among his motorcycling friends. Dave's operation was seen as a benchmark by many of the OEMs he dealt with. Due to his outstanding performance as an early Honda automobile dealer -- which he became in 1974 -- he was one of only 50 people chosen by Acura for franchises when it launched its product in America in 1986. His Acura store, designed in part by his wife Barbara, appeared in early Acura brochures. Eventually, his lines included also Lexus, Toyota, and Dodge. He ascended to the top of his field, serving as chairman of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, and in his capacity as a spokesman for his industry, he got face time with three Presidents; Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. At exclusive Detroit Auto Show cocktail parties hosted for the top corporate executives of the industry, Dave Mungenast was often one of the few retailers on the guest list.

Then there was Dave Mungenast the Hollywood stuntman. Between 1976 and 1985, he worked on a half-dozen television pilots and motion pictures, including “Airport 77” where he doubled for Christopher Lee whose character was drowned under a crashing wall of tons of water. He did motorcycle crashes for Burt Reynolds and brawled with Jackie Chan. He played Max the construction worker that Paul Newman almost killed with an ill-placed wrecking ball in “Harry and Son.” In 1985 he was on a team of three riders who launched their motorcycles off of a pier into the ocean, earning a nomination for the Stuntman of the Year Award. He raced with motocross champion Kent Howerton in the 1984 film “Stormin' Home.” Dave's physical qualifications for the dangerous and bruising work of a stuntman derived not just from his successful career as an endurance rider, but from the fact that he was an Army Green Beret. As such, he was qualified as an underwater demolition expert, a paratrooper, and a member of the Honor Guard in Korea, an elite corps that functions as a kind of secret service escort for the Army's top brass.

Over time, Mungenast also became a commercial property developer in St. Louis and a marina owner at Lake of the Ozarks. As he and Barbara became more financially able, they devoted more of their energy to philanthropic work through the Dave and Barbara Mungenast Foundation as the responsibilities of running their dealerships were turned over to their adult sons, Dave Jr., Ray, and Kurt. At one time, Dave served on the boards of banks, but he gave that up with the decision that his board service would be devoted only to charitable and non-profit organizations. He served as a director for both the Wheels Through Time Museum and the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum, and on the boards of the Boys' Club of St. Louis and St. Anthony's Medical Center. The list of organizations to which Dave, his businesses, and Barbara provided support is extensive.

Mungenast also invested in rural holdings, including 1,000 acres in the Ozarks near Branson. On their rural land he and Barbara raised llamas, bison, horses, and longhorn cattle. These holdings were the fulfillment of a dream that went back to his boyhood, illustrating yet another aspect of his personality. While growing up near the Mississippi River, it was Dave's fantasy to become a mountaineer and live rough off the land. As a youth he learned to trap game, and he revealed early his entrepreneurial skills by selling pelts to a furrier in St. Louis. It was Dave's plan to use his resources in the hills outside Branson to create a kind of living museum so future young people would have an opportunity to understand how things used to be and how resourcefulness and hard work have built our nation and culture. As he progressed in years, and as his sons produced more grandchildren, Dave's charitable efforts began to focus more and more on ideas and organizations dedicated to the welfare and development of youth.

Indeed, Dave Mungenast managed several separate careers, and often his associates in one aspect of his life knew very little about the others. This is not because he was secretive, but because he was a deeply modest man. Though enviously successful in every aspect of his life, Dave never talked about himself or his accomplishments. And he never instructed his peers and subordinates. Rather, he led by example and never placed himself above others. With over 450 employees, he knew their names and could easily converse with them about their families and the events in their lives. He did not wear jewelry or drive flashy cars, and he never bothered to learn to play golf. The Mungenast business empire generated a lot of wealth, but for Dave it was never about the money. He believed that the object of a business is to protect its employees and provide a service to its clients and its community. He believed – and proved – that if business is carried on ethically according to this tenet, profit will be the inevitable by-product.

Dave's passing is tragically untimely. For a year now I have been working with his family on a book about his life, his adventures, and his business philosophy which, as I see it, emerged from a combination of his German Catholic upbringing and the principle of Kaizen, the Oriental philosophy of continuous, ongoing, incremental day-by-day improvement that he learned from Soichiro Honda. The book is entitled “Take it to the Limit: The Dave Mungenast Way,” alluding to his favorite song, by the Eagles. In every aspect of his life, Dave took it to the limit. He was neither rash nor reckless, but he could tolerate and embrace a level of risk that most of us would not dream of. “The Dave Mungenast Way” refers to the business systems he developed to instill his philosophy of ethical practice throughout his organizations, from top to bottom. I was working on the final chapter of this book when Dave was diagnosed with the terrible disease that so quickly consumed his life. Last Spring, Malcolm Smith was talking to me about Mungenast's extraordinary vigor and physical condition, and he said, “At 72 he rides a motorcycle like a good 50-year-old.” Sixty days later Dave was incapacitated by cancer, which was simply mind-numbing to all of us who were around him. I had entitled that final chapter “The Shepherd of the Hills,” after the title of Dave's favorite book. Like the Shepherd of the Hills, Dave Mungenast the mentor was constantly watchful of those around him, and genuinely concerned about their well-being.

I took the photograph of Dave at the head of this story about a month before his diagnosis when we were visiting his ranch in rural Missouri. To me, this photo depicts the essential Dave Mungenast. Beyond his business prowess, beyond the glamour and excitement of his career in the movies, beyond his achievements as a world-class motorcyclist, beyond the danger of his days as a Green Beret, Dave Mungenast was a gentle man with compassion. He had compassion for anyone who would make an honest effort. He had compassion for his family and his employees. He had compassion for the young people who will struggle to carry on our social, educational, and business institutions in the future. And he had compassion for all of his animals, including this beautiful llama which made happy little grunting noises in its throat as it nuzzled with Dave. I think this animal understood the quiet core of Dave Mungenast.

We will miss him.

REF: http://www.motohistory.net/news.html ,

Posted September 22, 2006

Motorcycle Hall of Fame: Dave Mungenast Sr.
Dave Mungenast, Sr. was a leading enduro racer of the 1960s and ‘70s. He rode the International Six Days Trials (now called the ISDE) nine times in his career and earned six medals in the prestigious competition, including two golds as a member of the Club Team and a silver as part of the Triumph manufacturer's squad in 1973, when the competition was held in the United States for the first time. As a motorcycle dealer and owner of off-road riding areas, Mungenast continued to support off-road riding after his retirement from racing. He also sponsored numerous off-road racing events in his home state of Missouri. Mungenast was born in St. Louis on October 1, 1934, and except for a stint in the Army, he always lived in the area. His start in motorcycling was inauspicious, to say the least. At the age of 16, he bought his first bike, a 1946 Indian Chief. Unfortunately, Mungenast crashed the bike on his way home. He recovered from that ill-fated ride and continued riding Indians through the 1940s. By the early 1950s, Mungenast began riding off-road, partly out of necessity. "Every time I’d go fast on the street, I’d get myself in trouble," Mungenast confessed. "I would get tickets or the police would chase me, so I thought maybe I could go fast in the dirt and no one would chase me." Fortunately for the aspiring dirt rider, there were several places to ride near his home, including an abandoned quarry. Soon, Mungenast began competing in local off-road events and quickly moved from the big Indians to a more dirt-worthy bike – a BSA single. "I’d ride my bike to the races and tape over the headlight and race," Mungenast recalls. "Those were the days before we discovered trailers, so it was pretty common back then." Mungenast raced a little bit of everything – enduros, scrambles, TTs. He first attended the famous Jack Pine Enduro in Michigan as a spectator in the 1950s and began racing the event in the mid-1960s and won his class at the Jack Pine in 1965. Another big win for Mungenast was a popular 24-hour off-road reliability event held near his home at Riverdale Speedway. The race went on for several years and was given national status in 1964, and Mungenast won the race that year. Winning that event brought a lot of acclaim to Mungenast and helped him further his racing career. In 1967, Mungenast went to Poland to race in the International Six Day Trial, the oldest international motorcycling competition. Riding a Husqvarna, Mungenast won a Club Team gold medal. Mungenast would go on to race in the prestigious international event for nine straight years, tallying two golds, two silvers and two bronzes. Mungenast credits fellow ISDT competitor Leroy Winters as being a major influence. "Winters took me under his wing," said Mungenast. "I had been a motorcycle mechanic, but at the ISDT Leroy showed me what it really took to prepare for a six-day, 1,000-mile race. He was undoubtedly the best prepared rider out there." Of the nine ISDTs Mungenast competed in, he feels that the first event in Poland was perhaps the most memorable. "Malcolm Smith started a position behind me that year and he told me he’s never seen someone crash so much and still finish. My bike looked like it had gone through a trash compactor. I thought I had to go out there and ride as fast as I could. It was later I learned that you had to pace yourself so you and the machine would last for six days. Despite all the crashes that first year, I made it through and managed to earn a gold." By the late 1960s, Mungenast was focusing much more on his burgeoning motorcycle and car dealerships. From the shop’s humble beginnings, Mungenast’s businesses grew to include large automobile dealerships selling Toyota, Honda, Lexus and Acura. On the motorcycling side, his dealerships over the years have carried 11 brands. Mungenast smiled at the thought of the evolution of his dealerships. "My first shop was nothing more than a hole in the wall. You couldn’t even call it a Mom and Pop deal. It was more like just a Pop deal, it was so small." The demands of business caused Mungenast to focus his racing efforts primarily on ISDT qualifiers through the early 1970s. By the mid-1970s, Mungenast retired from full-time racing. His son carried on his legacy by racing ISDT/ISDE for five years. Towards the end of his career, his fellow riders often ribbed Mungenast for racing oddball machines, including the Rokon, an off-road motorcycle that featured an automatic transmission. Mungenast explained his tendency to ride something different from the norm. "At the end of my career I finally started getting paid to race for the first time," Mungenast remembers. "It was ironic that the slower I got, the more I was getting paid to ride. So I did ride some strange machines in my later days, but it was great. I’d fly to the races and a mechanic was there waiting with the bike and all I had to do was ride." After his racing career, Mungenast was asked to help do some motorcycle stunts for a movie and that led to a decade-long career working in the movies. His stunt work appeared in movies such as "Hooper" and "Cannonball Run," and he did all of this in his 40s. He retired from movie work at age 50 after one particularly grueling stunt session where he was forced to do a hard stunt over three times before the director was happy. During the 1960s and ‘70s, Mungenast began sponsoring races and bought large tracts of land and created off-road riding areas. His off-road parks featured enduros, scrambles and motocross races and even hosted a motocross school taught by world motocross champion Rolf Tibblin. Perhaps one of the most unique parts of Mungenast’s racing career was that he spanned three distinct eras of off-road motorcycling. He raced in the early days of converted Harley-Davidson and Indian motorcycles, through the British four-stroke invasion of the 1950s, and finally the two-stroke era that took off in the late-1960s. Inducted in 2000 © 2004, Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum		Year Inducted: 2000 Achievements: ISDE medalist Enduro rider Dealer Dave Mungenast, House Springs, MO. Mungenast and John Penton during 2002 inductions.

Dave Mungenast Sr.

Date of birth (location) 1 October 1934 St. Louis, Missouri, USA   Date of death (details) 20 September 2006 St. Louis, Missouri, USA. (brain cancer)   Mini biography Dave Mungenast, Sr. was born in St. Louis, Missouri on October 1st, 1934... (show more)

Filmography as: Actor, Stunts, Miscellaneous Crew

Actor - filmography
(1980s) (1970s)

1. Harry & Son (1984) .... Max
2. The Cannonball Run (1981) (uncredited) .... Kicked by Jackie Chan
   
    
3. Hooper (1978) (uncredited) .... Motorcycle Cop
   
    

Filmography as: Actor, Stunts, Miscellaneous Crew

Stunts - filmography

1. Hooper (1978) (stunts)
   
    

Filmography as: Actor, Stunts, Miscellaneous Crew

Miscellaneous Crew - filmography

1. Airport '77 (1977) (double: Christopher Lee)
   
    

REF: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0612801/