Douglas A. Yorke, Jr., Photo from his Linkdin profile.
An old friend and colleague of mine, Douglas A. “Doug” Yorke, Jr. passed away on April 11, 2024. My connection to Doug Yorke was thru the Society for Commercial Archeology (SCA). I initially found out about Doug’s passing thru a Facebook post by Richard Gutman, who got word from John Baeder. Born in Rumson, NJ and more recently residing in Red Bank, NJ, Doug was an avid cyclist who decided to embark on a ride on Easter Sunday, March 31st and apparently during this ride he was involved in an accident with an SUV. He was transported to Jersey Shore Medical Center where he had received outstanding care by the trauma team. Unfortunately Doug’s injuries proved to be too much and he passed away surrounded by his family eleven days later. When I learned of this I realized I may have been one of the last members of the SCA to speak to Doug before his accident. I actually called him up on Friday, March 29th and had a great conversation with him for which I am extremely grateful.
For those who aren’t familiar with the SCA, it is an organization that has its roots in New England. The SCA was started in 1977 by a group of like minded individuals who were concerned with the rapidly changing landscape of the American Roadside. It was founded to promote the documentation, interpretation and preservation of appropriate American automobile-related roadside structures and landscapes. Founding members included among others, Chester Liebs, Arthur Krim, Dan Scully, Peter Richards & Doug Yorke, Jr.
I first became aware of the SCA via a newspaper article from the Boston Globe in 1979 or 1980, within a year or so prior to when I started taking my “Diner” photographs. I was further introduced to the organization after becoming friends with Richard and Kellie Gutman. They informed me about an upcoming event (which I attended) in early 1981 held at the House Restaurant which featured the semi-restored Kitchenette Diner installed adjacent to the restaurant’s Allston, Massachusetts location. I then had further exposure to the SCA when the Apple Tree Diner of Dedham held a “going-away” party on a Saturday in July of 1981. The diner had just closed and was about to move off its long time operating location. Not long after this, I joined the SCA and am proud to have been a member since! I believe I must have seen or become aware of Doug Yorke at either the event at the House Restaurant or the Apple Tree Diner party, more than likely both.
In the pursuit of obtaining printed pieces and news stories on the subject of diners, I became aware of one of the earliest pieces about diners to be published in a national magazine in the late 1970s. It appeared in the March, 1977 edition of Yankee Magazine and was co-written by Doug Yorke and his wife Eve. It was titled Hash House Greek Spoken Here. This predated the books that were to come soon after, John Baeder’s Diners in 1978, Richard Gutman and Eliot Kaufman’s American Diner in 1979 and Donald Kaplan & Alyson Bellink’s Diners of the Notheast in 1980. I have received permission from Yankee Magazine to include Doug and Eve’s Hash House piece here…
Front Cover of the March, 1977 Yankee Magazine with Doug and Eve’s
Hash House Greek Spoken Here.
If anyone is so inclined, the issue of Yankee Magazine that contains this article does come up for sale on Ebay and Amazon, I have re-read this piece recently and it still holds up well after 47 years! Also, I am aware that these images of the above article are not quite readable here, so if anyone wants a high resolution PDF, I can send one along if you drop me an email.
Doug was the third person to be elected President of the SCA (1979-1980) and was involved with the SCA’s All Night All-Nite Diner Tour during his term. In fact he designed the small pamphlet that members received when they embarked on this little excursion that hit diners in Massachusetts & Rhode Island.
Front Cover of the All Nigh All-Night Diner tour booklet
designed by Doug Yorke.
Doug also collected various pieces related to diners including some porcelain enameled steel panels salvaged from diners including the “Diner” panels seen on the wall in the background of this post card below for the now defunct Transportation Museum in Boston. These panels were from the former Garden Diner that operated in Boston’s West End neighborhood for decades. Doug saved these panels while Dick Gutman got the panels that said “Garden”. Doug also had panels from the Diner Deluxe that operated in New Bedford for years before moving to nearby Acushnet to later operate as the Blue Point Restaurant.
Post Card for the short-lived Boston Transportation Museum
that was located in the Fort Point area of Boston along with the
Boston Children’s Museum.
Front cover of the Wildwood Workbook from
the SCA Meeting.
I recall an early encounter with Doug that comes to mind, it was during the SCA meeting in Wildwood, NJ on June 25, 1983. I had driven down the day before from Boston and stayed at a local campground that night. So I was walking on the boardwalk for a while before the scheduled meet-up/lunch at the Wildwood Diner.
Wildwood Diner, Wildwood, NJ. June 25, 1983 photo
By Larry Cultrera
When I walked into the diner I passed thru the front dining room addition into the original diner section. I immediately saw Doug sitting at the counter and went over to reintroduce myself, we were in fact the first of the members to arrive. We had a great conversation for the remaining time until the other people showed up.
The SCA held its largest conference up until that time at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. Billed as the Americans and the Automobile Conference, it took place November 4-6, 1988. A photo was taken of a handful of original members of the SCA in front of the restored Lamy’s Diner at the conference.
Group photo with some of the original members of the SCA
at the Americans and the Automobile Conference.
Back row left to right –
Peter Richards, Mike Jackson (the Presdient of the SCA),
Dan Scully and Arthur Krim.
Front row left to right – Doug Yorke, Millie O’Connell
and Chester Liebs.
During the course of the conference, Doug Yorke gave a presentation on November 5th titled Blazed Trails: Happy Motoring Across America the Beautiful -A History of the Oil Company Road Map. Doug later turned this into a cover story in the SCA News Journal (Winter 1990, Vol. 11, No.3).
Front cover of SCA News Journal, Winter 1990
This topic eventually was expanded into book form and published in 1996 via Chronicle Books. This became a collaboration between Doug Yorke & John Margolies (designed by Eric Baker) titled Hitting The Road – The Art of the American Road Map.
Front cover of Hitting The Road -The Art of the American Road Map.
Aside from his contributions to commercial archeology, Doug was an extremely accomplished individual. As listed on his Linkdin account, Doug was a seasoned business leader with C-level and Board experience in industry, not-for-profit and government. Extensive government experience in economic development and industry experience with investing in and managing startups, sales and business development and acquisition strategy and execution. At the time of his passing he was currently directing a Princeton-led program to build a regional innovation engine built around the photonics industry in New Jersey.
Doug also had thought-leadership and thought-provoking pieces published in the US and Europe. He was a Syracuse undergrad (BS, BArch) and Wharton MBA.
Doug’s family wrote a poignant tribute/ obituary for him:
The world lost one of its most dedicated laughers with the passing of Douglas Arthur Yorke, Jr on April 11th. He died peacefully surrounded by his beloved family while in the outstanding care of the trauma team at Jersey Shore Medical Center.
Doug was born to Joanne and Doug Yorke on August 20, 1951 and grew up in Rumson, where he would later raise his three children. His childhood days were spent boating, skiing, and scheming with his many friends, establishing a passion for athletics and hi-jinks that would endure his whole life.
He attended the Westminster School where he built many lifelong friendships and developed a love of learning and leadership. He graduated from Syracuse University and Wharton School of Business. Doug lived a life full of variety; among his many professional accomplishments, he was integral in the preservation of the now-Instagram-famous Hermitage Hotel bathroom in Nashville, assisted the Navajo in establishing the Navajo Nation Permanent Trust Fund, was a founding board member of Parsons Dance Company, and spearheaded an ongoing project to make New Jersey a leader in the field of photonics.
Doug was an avid writer, with many professional publications, several op-eds in the New York Times, a blog on mergers and acquisitions, and enough personal narratives to stuff a memoir. After amassing one of the largest private collections of American road maps, he published a book on their artwork and the story they reveal about American history, Hitting the Road. He will be remembered by many as a passionate epistolater, sending postcards from his travels and typing carefully crafted letters to his family and friends, including monthly missives to his granddaughter, despite her being too young to read them herself. Care packages he sent to his children throughout their lives would arrive with their own personalized, themed mailing labels and adorned with antique stamps which served no value beyond amusement. His signature font was Trebuchet.
Doug loved to print the internet and hated eating vegetables. He was a meticulous and absurd list-maker (“Biking Gear Needs, Arranged by 10-Degree Temperature Increments,” “Foods I Can’t Believe My Children Tell Me I Should Eat”) and had perfected the art of stacking his many papers into piles, artfully placed around every surface of his apartment. He was a dedicated uncle who loved being Crazy Uncle “Duog” to his nieces and nephews. He carried on the work of his mother, Jan, a founder of the Monmouth Museum, by serving as a trustee of the museum for 12 years. He was a lifelong member of St George’s by-the-River and was beloved for his resonant readings of lessons (though he was occasionally known to edit scripture on the fly if he thought of a bon mots better than the disciples did); his faith was buoyant, ardent, and contagious.
After running hurdles in high school and marathons in young adulthood, he found his great passion for physical activity in cycling. He biked all over the East Coast and Texas, on multi-day rides and centuries, in pursuit of a goal to log enough miles to circumnavigate the globe. Despite several significant injuries over 20+ years, he couldn’t resist “hitting the road” on a beautiful day. This Easter Sunday, his sunny ride was to be his last.
Doug was predeceased by his parents Joanne and Doug, his stepfather, LeRoy “Bud” Bunnell, his sister-in-law Jean Bunnell. He is survived by his children, Douglas Yorke (Kiley Dancy) of Dover, DE, Alice Yorke (Steven Rishard) of Philadelphia, PA, Liza Yorke of Brooklyn, NY; his siblings Christine (Michael) Flaherty of Big Canoe, GA; Tom (Jeannette) Yorke of Atlantic Highlands; Peeka (Art) Tildesley of Fair Haven; Steve Bunnell of Norway, ME; Barry (Divya) Bunnell of Sewickley, PA; his former wife and the mother of his children Eve Chamberlain of Little Silver; twelve nieces and nephews and his granddaughter Emilia.
A funeral service was held at St. George’s by-the-River on Saturday, May 11th at 10:30 am
Although Doug Yorke and I only met a handful of times in the last 40 plus years, we were both very friendly with each other and spoke on the phone every now and then. I am saddened that he passed away too soon and know that he will be missed by his family and many friends. Rest in Peace Doug!
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