Our Martha Hindes 1936-2022

Martha Hindes (1936 - 2022)
Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan
Obituary

Martha Hindes, an automotive journalist, who lived in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, died on January 10, it was recently learned. She was 85. A graduate of Wayne State University, Hindes worked as a reporter and feature writer for The Detroit News for several years, before becoming an independent journalist, focusing on automotive topics. In recent years, she was a senior editor for online publication The Auto Channel. Hindes was a member of the Automotive Press Association and the Individual Communicators Network, both based in Detroit.

Editor's Notes: It is with tears and anguish that I am posting Martha's Obit instead of publishing an entertaining take on a news event assignment or a new vehicle road test, or Martha's take of the auto industry, its people and good and bad new products.

Thought of Martha from TACH family member Steve Purdy; Martha had more trouble with her digital life than anyone we knew.

From Thom Cannel, TACH family member: I’m not sure I can recall a time when I did not know Martha Hindes, the sartorially frumpy, technologically challenged writer of immense charm and laughter. Martha was habitually late, not because of a character flaw, rather an endless series of catastrophes of otherworldly origin. She, alone, could not exist with digital technology; wrist watches had to be analog or suffer a may fly’s lifetime. Digital recording device? No, they, too, were perishable and so mini-cassette tapes and reporter’s notebooks were carried for interviews.

I never saw Martha carry a camera. Martha was the last person you’d suggest as a getaway driver.

At the height of auto show extravagance, the annual Road and Travel pageantry was largely written by her, in a manner that combined the tongue-in-cheek zaniness of Saturday Night Live with dead-accurate automotive knowledge and reportage.

Together we proposed an early, very early website called Cars and Comments. I’m sad it’s not part of her legacy.

Our TACH family members pray that Martha can now get the help she needs to straighten out her digital connectivity problems directly from Steve Jobs, Rest in Peace dear Martha Rest in Peace.

Now smile and read and appreciate some of Martha's insight and writing talent HERE