Garfield Wood

Garfield Arthur "Gar" Wood (December 4, 1880 – June 19, 1971) was an American inventor, entrepreneur, and championship motorboat builder and racer who held the world water speed record on several occasions.

[1] His father was a ferryboat operator on Lake Osakis, Minnesota, and Gar worked on boats from an early age.

Later, he changed the company's name to Garwood Industries, which built racing and pleasure boats under the Gar Wood brand.

Wood also capitalized on experience with coal unloaders to successfully produce and market GarWood truck, bus and coach bodies.

Initially still focused on racing, Wood set a new water speed record of 75 miles per hour (121 km/h) in 1920 on the Detroit River, using a new twin Liberty V-12 powered boat called Miss America.

In the following twelve years, Wood built nine more Miss Americas and broke the record five times, raising it to 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) in 1932 on the St. Clair River.

In 1921, Wood raced one of his boats against the Havana Special train, 1,250 miles (2,010 km) up the Atlantic coast from Miami to New York City.

Garwood Industries began building boats under the "Gar Wood" brand following his early successes in racing.

[7] During World War II, Garwood Industries produced a limited number of tugboats and target craft for the U.S. Navy.

After the war, new technologies such as plywood, fiberglass, and mass production methods entered the pleasure boating world.

Upon his death, George Van of The Detroit News wrote: "To the public, he was Tom Swift, Jules Verne, Frank Merriwell with a little bit of Horatio Alger thrown in.