I just recieved this from Jonathan Stien, Dorothy and Jim were on my mind
this week with the fires . I'd checked the maps to see that they were out of
it all. Sincereley a couple of the finest people I have ever met.
Tom Householder
For Immediate Release
Contact: Jonathan A. Stein
610/779-9710
610/779-3705 fax
American British Car Legend Dies
Dorothy Deen, March 28, 1922 - October 23, 2007
Oceanside California, October 23, 2007.
As raging wildfires threatened her Southern California home, Dorothy Deen
Sitz died in a nearby Oceanside hospital after a long illness. The vivacious
blonde Deen was best known for the Doretti sports car, a line of sports car
accessories of the same name and for importing Triumph Sports cars for the
Western United States. A darling of the local and automotive press, she was
a common fixture at races and promoting the sports cars she sold.
Born in Hollywood, Calif., to engineer and businessman Arthur Andersen and
Martha Schultz Andersen, Dorothy grew up in a time when women either stayed
home with children or worked as secretaries and telephone operators. At an
early age, Dorothy Andersen had other ideas.
Her career started as a teenager test driving the Whizzer motor bicycles her
father had redesigned. She graduated to a mail order business selling
gasoline model airplane engines her father also designed and manufactured.
Growing up in Los Angeles, Dorothy had always been interested in cars, but
the interest really took off in 1950 when she took delivery of a brand new
Ivory MG TD, which was followed by several sporty Simcas. Instantly, she was
propelled into a world of rallies, clubs and races. Although her later
business interests prevented her from racing, she and her father often ran
their cars on an abandoned airfield near the Andersen beach house.
The next business venture forever changed Dorothy9s life. Unable to find
high-quality accessories for her MG and her father9s Morgans, the pair
designed and marketed their own wind wings, sun visors, luggage racks, valve
covers in addition to wood and aluminum steering wheels. With backing from
Andersen and in partnership with machinist Paul Bernhardt, Cal Specialties
was born. To make the Cal Specialties line sound more exciting, the partners
took the first three letters of Dorothy9s name, and turned it into the
Italianate 3Doretti.2 .
Through his work with thin-wall steel tubing, Andersen became involved with
the Standard Swallow Company that was building a sports car based on Triumph
TR2 running gear. In partnership with Dorothy, Andersen took on distribution
of the new car in the U.S. and simultaneously picked up Western distribution
rights for Triumph. Not only would Dorothy import the cars, but for a single
dollar she sold the rights to the Doretti name that soon graced the
attractive new two-seater. After Doretti production ended in 1955, Deen
continued to import Triumphs until the company bought out all distributors
in 1960. She then became the 45th woman in the world to earn her helicopter
pilot9s license and later co-owned and managed an aircraft dealership. She
later returned to UCLA to become a para legal on her intended but never
completed--route to becoming an attorney. Along the way she declined Max
Hoffman9s offer of a West Coast BMW distributorship and opted for a life of
retirement and travel with her late husband, Tony Anthony, whom she met when
he sold her that first MG TD sports cars years earlier. She is survived by
automotive historian Jim Sitz, her husband of 16 years.
For more information, contact Jonathan A. Stein, 610/779-9710 or
jonathanastein@aol.com.
7450 Valley View Lane Reading, PA 19606, USA; 610\779-9710 (fax:
610/779-3705); cell: 484/824-2660; jonathanstein@aol.com
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