The Second Barn Gang
Charlie Adams helped start a new Barn Gang in 1992, named after the original Barn Gang of inventors.
—by Charles O. Adams

Dayton's Children

For over 100 years remarkable, intertwined individuals have reshaped the way we live our lives, from the keys in our pockets to the water we drink and the air we breathe. Wherever we live we’re all Dayton’s Children. Read the companion book to Dayton Innovation Legacy, by Mark Martel, Mark Bernstein, Charlie Adams, John Janning, and others.
​The second Barn Gang was started as a luncheon group of Dayton Engineers Club members in 1992. The name is a throwback to the Barn Gang of Charles F. Kettering and Col. Edward A. Deeds, who, with a group of others, electrified the ignition system of gasoline engines and invented the electric starter for these engines, in Col. Deeds barn on Central Avenue in Dayton, about 1910. It was started by Tom Sheetz, retired protocol officer from WPAFB., Wilson Charbonneaux, retired president of several successive manufacturing companies, Chuck Dempsey, retired WWII B24 bomber pilot and member of the Medical Research Laboratory of WPAFB. They were joined by Ken Zahrt, retired future planning engineer from WPAFB and Bob Overman, retired engineer from General Motors, Inland Division. Bob had developed the airbag for automobiles, with some others. I joined this Barn Gang, having been given the Deeds-Kettering award and having led the Electric Car Symposiums held at the Engineers Club. The groups luncheons started at 11.00 a.m., with soup and sandwiches, and a technical talk at 12:00 noon.