He was right out of a Hollywood script. (Captains note: more about Dons, er, appetites, later.) Don also rubbed quite a few people up the wrong way and one of them eventually shot Don dead in Miami in 1987. He built speedboats for the Shah of Iran, Charles Keating, Robert Vesco, Malcolm Forbes, and George H. W. Bush. Brown: He started Formula from scratch and sold it to Thunderbird in about a year. With his first wife, Shirley Goldin, he has two sons and a daughter. I knew they were gunshots. What Happened To Don Aronow? How a week chartering in Croatia with SamBoat changed my life. Michael Peters One of the first issues I had to deal with when he hired me [in the early 1980s] was [notorious Haitian dictator] Baby Doc [Duvalier, who was a client]. Next thing I know an employee comes in and hes banging on my door. It was late and night during the depths of America's great Depression. Six foot three, real good looking, lots of swagger. Meanwhile, Kramer had been convicted of massive marijuana smuggling and money laundering, receiving multiple prison sentences including life without parole. In 1964 he started Donzi Marine; the Donzi brand became an international success and Aronow quickly sold the company to Teleflex Inc. in mid-1965. Her father was extremely wealthy and Don once told me he was going to take Shirley to California if the old man didnt cut him into the business. He retired and moved to Florida 10 years later -- a millionaire in his early 30's, his fortune spawned by the thousands of tract homes Aronow had built and sold throughout northern New Jersey. He competed in the race in April 62 and led until the end, but they [blew] a clutch and had nothing left. "I'd never be married to a beautiful woman like Lillian if I hauled garbage for a living," Aronow adds. He was a hero and a genius, a ballbuster and a bully. Aronow set out after Bertram, working with designers on NE 188th Street to create deep V fibreglass Formula boats, notably the seven-metre 233. That one time, Don said, Alright kid, Ill see ya, and walked out the door. He hung out with kings, mobsters, and The Beatles, and considered future president George H.W. A certain Ben Kramer, who came from a seemingly good home on the Intracoastal Waterway between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, started smoking pot at school and began selling it. Brown: Hed fuck your wife in a second. The deals off. Im guessing Don kept some of the under-thetable money., Michael Peters I had gone through a divorce and it was terrible times. Their father, Hugh Gibb, was mugged; Barry Gibbs wife, Linda, had her purse snatched. He started hosting Sunday afternoon brunches at the new home, sometimes for 50 or 60 people, with only Skip and Joanne Allen, of Southern Boating, and my wife and I as the token Christians. Little could prepare him for the scene two hundred metres up the street. Michael Peters concludes, If you want to find anything comparable today, you need to look elsewhere, maybe to the final frontier Blue Origin, SpaceX, Bezos and Musk. He pauses. Check Out Christopher Brineys Unseen Summer I Turned Pretty PhotosYoull Be Surprised! That was just his personality. [With lots of money and charisma, not to mention starting-quarterback good looks, Aronow soon became a ladies man of legendary status in Miami circles.]. (ABOVE) RUM RUNNER: The first boat to wear the Formula name was a 233 called Cigarette after a famous rum running boat. It was just one of the unusual clients Aronow had dealings with: oil-rich Arabs, Princess Caroline of Monaco and the Shah of Iran. Young died in prison in 2009 after steadfastly refusing for years to testify against Kramer. Separately, there were rumours that Aronow may have been assisting law enforcement, even becoming an informant or at least that, in early 1987, he was about to be subpoenaed to give evidence about the USA Racing Team transactions. Collecting his children from summer camp, and not returning to the family home, the 34 year-old arrived in Florida with a $2 million retirement fund. Allan Brown Shirley was his first wife. They become friends and Mr. Johnson told my father about the Miami-Nassau race and my father became really interested in it. There was fibreglass dust in the air and the pungent smell of resin and paint. Dream Symphony: Inside the 10-year build of the world's biggest sailing yacht. Content presented under the "BOAT Presents" logo is an advertising feature and Boat International Limited has been paid to include this content. A world-champion boat racer who enjoyed wild success in business, he was also an unapologetic playboy and fabled bon vivant. Her father was extremely wealthy and Don once told me he was going to take Shirley to California if the old man didnt cut him into the business., Michael Aronow After he was working with the family for a few years, he went off on his own and started building homes, then shopping centres and industrial parks all over northern New Jersey. You can talk to anybody [about that]. It did not take the US Customs Service long to learn of this. [Allegations ran wild in the aftermath of Aronows death. Saccenti: He used to say youre never gonna make a lot of money building boats. [Aronow was extremely competitive in most aspects of his life, perhaps even to a fault.]. [He drove it back and] the boat was sinking at the dock and he stepped off and said The boats a piece of shit kid. Leaving his office that afternoon, Aronow was making for his North Bay Road residence, a 1929 Spanish-style waterfront mansion undergoing renovations, 30 minutes drive away. You gotta do your homework. Ben Aronoff's success in business and as a successful boat racer hampered his personal life and caused a separation between him and his wife. But nothing compares with the go-fast scenes of the 1960s, 1970s and climatic 1980s. I didnt hear shots, with the air conditioner and sewing machines going on, but somebody came and got me. That was on my to-do list: Deal with Baby Doc. She has a son with him. And sure enough, I moved there on a Monday and he was murdered that Tuesday. The bosss wife would lean over my drafting table with her ample bosom and say, Remember, think sex.. The drug money was corrupting banking, real estate and law enforcement. At his funeral, [eye surgeon and powerboat racer] Doc Magoon gave the eulogy, and at one point he said, Don was a mans man. He paused, and then said, And he was a ladies man. Everybody looked around the room at all of the known mistresses that were sitting there., Michael Aronow My father broke up more marriages than anybody. He marries Emily Gowen, and they have a son together. Five days after his murder, The Washington Post reported that a Customs official described Aronow as co-operative when Aronow had been approached for information about one of his clients. Aronow went down the canal at 65mph (105km/h) and ended up running into the seawall. Don and I had had a meeting to discuss my salary. "I took her to all the best places," Aronow says. You can talk to anyone, but every night he was at home.. Their son is menswear designer Adam Kimmel; His second wife was former Wilhelmina model, Lillian Crawford, 24 years his junior. He did that a few times. Don Aronow understood that motto as well as anyone who ever lived. Whatever the truth of such rumours, the way South Floridas drug business metastasised from marijuana to cocaine smuggling, to vast profits and lawlessness, would sustain five seasons of Miami Vice. ", "Kramer's Conviction Upheld in Aronow Murder", "Helicopter Crash Foils Drug Smuggler's Prison Escape", "1986-1990 APBA Hall of Champions Inductees", "Master Of Those Mad Racers - Don Aronow hurts a little, but as the world's top ocean powerboat driver and builder he is never bored", "DONALD ARONOW, BOAT DESIGNER AND CHAMPION RACER, SHOT TO DEATH", New York Times, Men's Fashion, Travel: "For The Moment | Show Time for Adam Kimmel", "Interfaith Celebrities: Coming of Age Again, the Girls of NYC and a Couple of Rookies", Historic Offshore Race Boat Association - Donald Aronow, "The Murder of Speedboat Builder Don Aronow", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Donald_Aronow&oldid=1099454315, American people of Russian-Jewish descent, James Madison High School (Brooklyn) alumni, Articles needing additional references from January 2014, All articles needing additional references, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 July 2022, at 21:33. At Bushs instigation, the US Customs Service took the fateful step in 1985 of placing a $1.7 million order for high-speed pursuit boats with Aronows USA Racing Team. While limiting your liability, all while adhering to the most notable state and federal privacy laws and 3rd party initiatives, including. He was a real successful cocksman the best I ever saw. He dont speak too much English, hes trying to explain something, something serious. The twos happy marriage disintegrates due to Bens demanding schedules and their son Andrews car accident, which left his legs permanently disfigured. 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Like most, it's a tale of conquest; Aronow versus the odds: It was back in 1967. "It won big," Aronow says. Credit: Courtesy of Arthur Jay Harris. Vice President George Bush drives one of Aronow's Cigarettes. Back in those days, [criminal activity involving speedboats] was very prevalent because there was a lot of smuggling going on. The rest of NE 188th Street is covered with blocks of expensive condos promising comfortable waterside living. The hobby evolved into a business and by the end of 1962, he had formed the Formula Marine boat company, which he then sold to Merrick Lewis' Alliance Machine Corp out of Dayton, Ohio. He raced his 8.2-metre Maltese Magnum all over the world. He was a real successful cocksman. After buying Aronows USA Racing Team, Kramer had a business dispute with Aronow, but was forced to sell it back to Aronow after the Customs Service refused to do business with him. First published in the October 2022 issue of BOAT International. Aronow's Cigarette has also become the low slung get-away boat of choice for South Florida's high-rolling drug smugglers.? He pulled alongside a Lincoln car with tinted windows. He has been elected to every powerboating Hall of Fame in existence and as stated above, he and Gar Wood were the only two Americans to have ever received the UIM Gold Medal of Honor. At the age of 32 in 1959, Donald was listed as an official millionaire. Hed knock you right down., Allan Brown Don was so reckless with shit like that. The couples newfound happiness doesnt last long, though, because Ben is killed soon after at age 59 in what seems to be a job. A five-year non-compete agreement with Cigarette Racing, one of the companies hed sold, dated to 1982 and was about to expire. "Sure a lot of older men have bought my race boats to drive up and down the Intracoastal on weekends," Don Aronow admits. Accounts of the dealings vary, but perhaps $2 million had been paid under the table in cash by Kramer when he bought the firm, using drug money. This was not the first mystery to surround Donald Joel Aronow. Emblematic of both the American dream and a particularly magnetic kind of American masculinity, Aronow was a frontiersman, a real-life Marlboro Man and a fearless racer. He gave the impression that he felt he could take whatever he wanted.. Some people badmouth him, He did this, he robbed that. Well, thats shame on you. Although witnesses failed to identify him in police line-ups, Young pled no contest to the shooting. This was December of 86. Don Aronow born in 1927 in Brooklyn New York, left New Jersey in 1961 to relocate in Miami. He often raced the fast boats owned by his company and won a number of races. Lillian is Aronow's second wife -- a former Palm Beach socialite, heiress and high fashion model. He built this entire street. Airlifted to a nearby hospital, Don Aronow was dead within the hour. It had to do with his father's taxicab company. I think hed really be proud of the boats. His wife appeared on the cover. Aronow is a former junior high school gym teacher from the Bronx. With lots of money and charisma, not to mention NFL starting quarterback good looks, Aronow soon became a ladies man of legendary status in Miami circles. I cant imagine that, though, he was pretty easy to find. In 1948, he married Shirley Goldin, [1] [6] whom he had met while working as a lifeguard on Coney Island. Nobody really knows [what happened], the only thing for sure is that Dons gone., Phil Lipschutz [Aronow] lived right on the water on Biscayne Bay. Saws buzzed and machinery hummed at the various boat shops, most of which Aronow had started at one time or another. George H.W. Ben Aronoff's success in business and as a successful boat racer hampered his personal life and caused a separation between him and his wife. [A tough, athletic, Jewish kid from Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, by age 21 Aronow found himself married and about to start a career in his father-in-laws New Jersey Some people say he was hiding from the mob. "So I decided to build a powerboat race that would beat these other guys.". He has three childrenMichael, David, and Claudiawith Shirley Goldin, his first wife. And that became the original Formula Marine. "That's what winning is all about," Aronow grins nearly 20 years later. Those times can only be likened to the Old West: the Marlboro Man; the weed-strewn strip with its pioneers and settlers; the freebooters from south of the border bringing their lawlessness and loot and the law of the gun. They conveyed a warmth and a feeling of genuinely liking you. Semi-blind, he was forced to wear heavy-rimmed and thick-lensed glasses that were always a worry when he played. Out Christopher Brineys Unseen Summer I Turned Pretty PhotosYoull be Surprised dated to 1982 and about! 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