BOB STROUD - USAC HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2014

Hardly known at all by the race fans, but extremely highly regarded by the participants, the gravel-voiced but fatherly Bob Stroud seemed to have had two separate careers as a USAC official. After many years with AAA in several disciplines, he was named USAC’s full-time Midget division supervisor on January 1, 1960, and for the next decade became so totally devoted to that series that associates were astonished when at the end of the 1970 season he agreed to take over the USAC Stock Car series. It was an entirely different cast of characters, but Stroud quickly won them over, his rapport with participants and racetrack promoters alike always having been second to none. Always a strong advocate for fairness in competition and safety, he retired at the end of the 1976 season due to ill health and passed away on July 24, 1981, but he supervised hundreds of USAC events spanning two decades.