The original idea for the chapter was proposed at a small meet held at the home of Alex Burr, in Maine, in the spring of 1970. In the summer of 1970, Alex, with the support of Mike Elwell, sent out some 200 letters to HET members in the Northern New England area and response, including an offer from Charlie and Ellen Derby to host an organizational meet in Peterborough, NH, was positive enough to go ahead with formation.
The meet was held on May 16, 1971, at the National Guard Armory in Peterborough, along with several other area car clubs and an excellent chicken bar-be-que put on by the local Lions Club. Sixteen area HET'ers signed up and the New England Chapter was born.
Officers were elected (Alex Burr, president; Charlie Derby, vice-pres.; Mike Elwell, secretary; and Mal Fuller, Treasurer) and a petition sent to the National secretary.
As orginally laid out the chapter, officially the Northern New England Regional, included that portion of New England north of I-90 in MA and including Eastern Quebec and New Brunswick.
In Sept., 1971, two events occured; the National informed the regional that due to changes in National setup regionals would become chapters and thanks to the efforts of Major Alan Thayer, USAF Ret., and his print shop in Athol, MA, we were able to expand chapter coverage to southern New England. Having an in house printer enabled us to produce enough copies of the chapter newsletter, the Nor' by NorEast, to include CT and RI in the chapter and so we became the New England Chapter.
As the years progressed the chapter continued to grow with many great meets thru the 1970's and 80's. In the early 90's the chapter split with CT becoming the Yankee Chapter. Boundaries returned to those originally setup, the New England Chapter being north of I-90, and including RI and CT becoming the Yankee Chapter.
In 1992, in a little over a year after their formation, the Yankee Chapter hosted an excellent National meet in Waterbury, CT. Many HET members in the New England area belong to both chapters and meets are co-ordinated to prevent conflict.
Today, as the chapter enters it's 30th year, it counts itself among the very early chapters. The New England Chapter continues to support the preservation, through service, of the great cars built by Hudson.
