Oskar Egon Ruegg, or Egon to his many friends, graduated in engineering at The Zurich Institute of Technology and very soon after was bringing his expertise to spring manufacturing at his Pfaffikon Works. It was in a ground floor hall of these works where he housed a large car collection in later years.
As well as his Astons he owned two Bentleys, a Type 40 Bugatti, a Lancia Lambda, a Cord, a 1929 Hispano Suiza Coupe de Ville and a 1921 sleeve valve Voisin, to name but a few. He was a keen motorsport enthusiast competing in hill climbs or speed events in either his red DB4GT or his Ferrari Berlinetta. Unusually he also collected old wind instruments and was himself a talented trumpet player and was not averse to playing a tune at the Swiss area meetings. He was also a member of the Swiss Veteran Car Club.
Egon was renowned as an indefatigable host and extremely generous, often hosting overseas visitors, particularly Members of the AMOC. Egon enjoyed a fine sense of humour and his loss was felt greatly when he passed away.
The Oskar Egon Ruegg Trophy was presented to the Club by Egon’s wife, Lou, in memory of her late husband. Egon and Lou had two houses in Altendorf and Rapperswil in Switzerland and spent time between the two properties. His Altendorf home was named ‘The Escape Hatch’ and one hopes that it indeed provided exactly that.
He was a long-time Aston enthusiast, as was his wife. Egon had a rather lovely collection of Astons, owning DB4GT chassis 0146L, an International 2/4 seater chassis number KO/82 that he restored, and a Mk II with lightweight body, chassis number F4/456/S. He also had a 16 valve GP Aston.
The Swiss section of the AMOC was started by Egon in 1962 and to this day is still a strong overseas section with over 300 Members headed by Jurg Furter who has run the section for over 30 years.
The committee decided with Lou’s approval that the trophy should be awarded annually to a Member resident in Europe who has contributed outstanding service to the Club, particularly in the field of international relations. This was a cause that the committee along with Lou felt Egon would heartily approve of. You will see from the recipients that this has now deviated from its original inception to cover the world.
Images:
Below left: the original trophy, presented to the Club by Egon’s wife, Lou.
Below right: Swiss Section Chairman Jurg Furter was presented with the later version of the trophy by Pam MacGregor, 1998.