March 27: David E. Davis, Jr., the “dean of automotive journalists,” remembered

David E. Davis, Jr., the founder of Automobile Magazine, the former editor of Car and Driver, and the man Time magazine called "the dean of automotive journalists," died a year ago today — on March 27, 2011. Many of us owe a great debt to the man who made criticizing cars a respectable occupation.

I clearly remember the first time I saw David E. Davis, Jr. (see the 7:00 mark in the following video). It was April of 1987, when he appeared in a memorable segment of 60 Minutes waxing philosophic about the V-12-powered Lamborghini Countach: