HAGUE — The man who resurrected the luxurious Hacker-Craft antique boat business died this week.
William Morgan, 84, died Tuesday at Glens Falls Hospital, after being involved for more than four decades in crafting boats, Hacker-Craft spokesman Ken Rawley said.
“He’ll be dearly missed,” said Tim Gautreau, a boat builder who still works with the company at its production facility in Ticonderoga. “He created half the boat company, a multimillion-dollar corporation.”
Hacker-Craft boats cost around $200,000 to $400,000 today. The company built 16 in 2011.
The Hacker Boat Co. was formed by John Hacker in the early 20th century in Detroit, and boomed with success up through the Roaring ’20s, expanding to Mount Clemens, Mich., and even selling a 40-foot runabout to the King of Siam in 1930.
The Great Depression crippled the business, though.
A Hacker business partner later took over the company, changing its name to the Albany Boat Co., but even in the mid-1950s, Hacker Boat Co. was past its heyday, according to a local historical summary by Mount Clemens Public Library.
The company tried to recover with some contracts with the U.S. Navy and by making affordable models, but some historians credited its downfall to making the crafts available to the masses, according to the summary.
Morgan, who lived in the Bolton area, operated Morgan Marine, located on Silver Bay on Lake George, and bought his way into Hacker-Craft boats in 1959.
With that authority, he upgraded the boat’s capacity from 120 horsepower engines to 350 horsepower and above, said Rawley, the spokesman.
“We at the Hacker Boat Company and Erin Investments would not have the honor today of building Hacker-Craft boats had years ago Bill not taken the risk of buying and resurrecting a defunct trademark,” Hacker Boat Co. president and CEO George Babcock said in a statement.
Cris Ginn, a boat builder who worked for Morgan, said the man has a legacy beyond his niche and popularity in the antique boating world. Morgan also preserved two miles of lakeside by selling property to The Nature Conservancy.
Hacker-Craft owners have also included fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and actor Donald Sutherland.
“He wouldn’t hesitate to build somebody whatever they wanted,” Ginn said.
Article source: http://poststar.com/news/local/804affb4-5f61-11e1-9942-001871e3ce6c.html
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