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Healey Founders

Donald Mitchell Healey C.B.E.

Donald Mitchell Healey was born in 1898 in the seacoast village of Perranporth in North Cornwall, England. His parents ran the small village store, but it was his father’s hobby that influenced Donald more than anything else.

His father, John Frederick Healey, was keen on motor cars, owning a 1907 Panhard, and he later gave Donald a 1923 Buick with the first overhead valve engine that Buick made.

Geoffrey Healey

Geoffrey Carroll Healey was born in Perranporth, Cornwall on 14 December 1922, the first child of Donald Mitchell and Ivy James Healey. Of a mechanical bent, Geoff worked with his father, Donald, on the design of both the Austin-Healey 100, the later 3000 series “Big Healeys,” as well as the Austin-Healey Sprite. These sports cars are among the most popular and iconic British sports cars, from their introduction in 1952 and 1958 until the present day.

Brian “Bic” S.C. Healey

Brian Sampson Chudleigh Healey, 88, Cornishman, a founder and president of the Healey Drivers Club and former sales executive of the Donald Healey Motor Company, died of pneumonia at the Community Hospital of St. Austell, Cornwall, England on 6 April, 2014. He passed away peacefully with his family at his side, including his beloved Miniature Schnauzer, Phoebe.

John Healey

John Healey was born August 13, 1926 in Perranporth, Cornwall, the third son of Donald and Ivy Healey. He spent his childhood in Perranporth with his older brothers, Geoffrey and Brian (Bic). John attended Southampton University where he learned to fly with the University Air Squadron. He served in the Royal Air Force near the end of World War II, but with the need for pilots diminishing, he became a Physical Training Instructor in the RAF.

Gerry Coker

Gerald Charles Coker, known to all as “Gerry,” was born June 24, 1922 in Northamptonshire, England. He is known in the Healey world for his body design of the Healey Hundred introduced in 1952. Gerry’s design talent showed up early in life with his childhood “doodles” of motorcars. He began his training as an engineer in 1939 when he apprenticed at the Rootes Group, where he worked with experimental designs for armored vehicles and other military vehicle components prior to and during WWII.

Roger Menadue

Reginald Davis Menadue, known to everyone as Roger, was born in Newquay, Cornwall on August 23, 1912. He was dubbed “Roger” at an early age to avoid confusion with a cousin also named Reginald. Roger’s relationship with Donald M. Healey CBE (1898-1988) began in 1929 when, as an apprentice mechanic, he accompanied DMH and Lewis Pearce to the Monte Carlo Rally.