Remembering Denise McCluggage, the Racer, Writer and Role Model

Denise McCluggage with Bill Warner at the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.

She’d probably ask, “Why all the fuss?” and then remind me a good life led should never be mourned. But as I struggle to find a way to put down all the words and memories that come to mind as I think of Denise McCluggage, I cannot but help but feel an emptiness at her passing.

In an era when everything is summed up in Twitter feeds, is there a way to easily contain her life? Just list all the basics and you will quickly run beyond the 140 characters allowed: writer, author and raconteur, champion race car driver and entrepreneur, competitive skier, photographer, role model, pioneer. And someone whose friendship was cherished by those who Denise invited into her life.

Denise McCluggage passed away on Wednesday, May 6 at the age of 88. It was, by normal measure, a long life, and yet for those who knew her, it ended way too soon.

“I was going back and forth with my team last night and somebody said the usual, ‘How sad…’” recalls David Reuter, the head of communications at Nissan North America. “ I said, ‘Yes, but no. It is sad when somebody passes, but with Denise you can’t help but be anything but inspired at the incredible life she led. Anyone that came in contact with her came away a better person for it. And that is anything but sad.’"

Denise McCluggage was born in El Dorado, Kansas and while she never embraced the conservative politics of the Plains States, Denise clearly inherited that unique pioneering spirit. She left for Mills College, in Oakland, California, at a time when relatively few women were getting degrees, graduating Phi Beta Kappa before starting her career in journalism at the San Francisco Chronicle.

She didn’t just bridle at the limitations of the era. She ignored them, becoming one of the first women to actively cover sports. She also developed a knack for being at the right place and meeting the right people.

In the early 1950s, she shared an upper flat in the City by the Bay. The lower apartment was rented to a struggling musician just starting to form the quartet that would eventually make him famous. But there was a better piano in Denise’s apartment and so, Dave Brubeck often would come upstairs to practice.

McCluggage with Sir Stirling Moss in their racing heyday.

Denise met Briggs Cunningham at a yacht race. He was the first American to build cars for the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans, and Cunningham encouraged Denise’s passion for speed. He didn’t actually need to work very hard at it. McCluggage once recalled how she became fascinated with cars as a six-year-old, spotting a Baby Austin parked on the street. She later asked Santa for one.

With the money from her Chronicle job, Denise bought one of the first MG TC sports cars in the country, then upgraded to a Jaguar XK 140. And even as she moved cross country, taking a sports writing job at the old New York Herald Tribune, Denise began to race professionally.