Sid Colberg passed away on August 24, 2009.  Sid was a member of the Inaugural class of the SFR Hall of Fame in 2006. 

Sid was a past SFR Regional Executive, a racer, and a Concours mover and shaker. He was also a 50+ year member. 

He was interred at Hills Of Eternity Memorial Park Cemetary, 1301 El Camino Real, Colma on Sunday, August 30. Donations in his name to The Jewish Home, 302 Silver Avenue, San Francisco  CA 94112 are preferred. 

His family plans to have a "Celebration of Life" for him sometime around his birthday in April.

San Francisco Chronicle
Sunday, September 6, 2009

Sidney "Sid" Colberg Sid was born on May 6, 1916 at Mt Zion Hospital in San Francisco, California and died on August 25, 2009 at California Pacific Medical Center also in San Francisco.

Sid, being a child of the depression, he and his brother Tommy, were street performers during the twenties. Sid married his wife Alice in the mid 1930's. After WWII, Sid began his own business and built it into a very successful venture and in the mid 1960's sold it to his largest competitor.

At this time Sid began his life long career of auto restoration, restoring many rare and exotic classic automobiles. His life long passion was auto racing. He started in his 20's with midget racing and continued into his 80's racing with the Sports Car Club of America. Sid became well known for his "A walk through the Classics" an encyclopedic walk and talk performed during most of the statewide Concours d'Elegance's.

Sid was also known for his generous nature, contributing to many charities including the Boys Clubs of America and various Non Profit organizations. Sid is survived by his wife Alice, his children Marilyn and Alan, and three grandchildren Juan, Collin and Julian. He will be also be loved and missed by his large extended family and his many friends. Private family services were held at Hills of Eternity Memorial Park in Colma followed by interment.

Email The Web Team to share your memories on Sid's page.

Here is the Concours column written by Pit Wille for The Wheel in October 2007:

As an academic, I tend to couch things in educational terms, as I do when I refer to the subject of my interview this month, Sid Colberg, the “Senior Dean” of the car collecting hobby in Northern California. 

Sid graciously invited me to his home on the 16th floor of an imposing building overlooking Huntington Park, atop Nob Hill in The City.  I finally met his lovely wife of seventy years (no, that’s not a typo – seventy years), Alice, whom he affectionately calls “Allie.”  Never does a conversation take place with Sid where some mention of Allie isn’t made – pretty sweet after all that time.  I had come to our meeting expecting to conduct a traditional interview, as scripted questions popped-up on the screen of my laptop.  But Sid began by saying that he wanted to “run off at the mouth” before we got to the interview part; I started my digital recorder.  Well, after two hours of reminiscing, I left Sid and Alice’s home with enough nostalgic information to fill a complete issue of The Wheel.  Trying to condense it into a one- or two-page column will be a challenge, but here goes…

Sid and Alice are both native San Franciscans.  Sid’s grandparents immigrated from Austria, initially settling in New York, then moving to Alameda.  (San Francisco didn’t allow cows at that time, but Alameda did and, as we all know, it was important to have a cow!)  After marrying, his parents first lived in San Francisco’s Mission District, then bought a home in the Crocker Amazon District, just off Geneva Avenue, near the county line.  Sid attended Longfellow Elementary School and was in the first class at Balboa High School, but soon transferred to Lowell High School, The City’s academic secondary institution.  Sid began his own business before The War, then served in the National Guard, followed by the California Guard, as an officer during WWII, stationed at The Presidio and serving around the Bay Area.  After the war he “grew” Colberg Supply, employing entirely G.I.’s, into a major vendor to hotels, and the like, and, with thanks from all of us, I’m sure, developed the donut-shaped sanitary toilet-seat cover tissues and dispensers seen in public restrooms everywhere.  As an ancillary claim-to-fame, Sid’s brother, Milton Colberg, aka Tommy Harris, founded a San Francisco favorite - Tommy’s Joynt restaurant.

Sid’s interest in cars got an early start.  As a child, he would stand in front of his father’s produce store on Bayshore Boulevard in The City, naming the marque of each car as it passed by.  When he became old enough to drive, Sid became, of all things, a hot-rodder and member of the Bay Cities Racing Association.  He had a Model-A Ford with welded doors, side pipes and all the tricks of the day.  Sid made a significant connection to hot-rodding and racing in his Crocker Amazon neighborhood, as his friend and neighbor was multiple Indy Five Hundred winning mechanic, George Bignotti, whose daughter, coincidentally, was in my grade school class.  Sid even raced his V8-60 midget, #77, in BCRA meets at the Cow Palace.  His and Alice’s first family car was a DeSoto roadster.  But, after the war, he developed a fondness for things British, particularly Aston Martins.  On a trip to England in the early ‘50’s, Sid “fell in love,” as he likes to say, and purchased his first collector car, a 1952 Aston DB2/4 Vantage Drop-Head Coupe.  Disliking its understatedly British color combination of grey over grey, Sid repainted and reupholstered it to white with a red interior, matching a popular MG color combination.  Sid drove the Aston regularly, then entered it in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance around 1954, winning his class.  In 1957, Sid received a call from a friend, saying that Sammy Weiss, owner of Oxford Motors, the Sacramento British Car dealership, and a local racer of some repute, wanted to trade for Sid’s Aston.  Hesitantly, Sid did so, for a Jaguar XK-SS, one of only sixteen in existence at the time.  The car had been ordered for a renowned Eureka collector and racer, but the buyer was killed in a racing accident in Hawaii, shortly before taking possession of the Jag.

At about the same time, Sid and Alice built there “dream home” in Hillsborough.  The significance of that will follow…

While owning the Aston, Sid began volunteering as a corner worker in SFR-SCCA.  In fact, he and other local club members were corner workers for the Guardsmen-sponsored races through Golden Gate Park in the early ‘50’s.  He rapidly moved up the ranks in our region.  Although he did some gymkhana with the Jag, his SCCA friends teased him for not racing it.  He succumbed to their prodding, finding a new love – road racing.  In 1964, Sid became SFR’s Regional Executive.

As if he didn’t have enough on his proverbial plate, in the late 1950’s, a Hillsborough  parents group that hosted a fundraising carnival at one of the local schools met with Sid to organize a car show in conjunction with that carnival.  Sid got together with some of his car collector/racer buddies and the Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance was created.  Ten years later, a group from the Palo Alto Host Lions Club visited Sid, asking him to help them host a Concours.  Sid joined their Lions Club and, subsequently, the Palo Alto Concours was born.  I don’t know how many shows, in toto, Sid was instrumental in gestating, but the Golden Gate Concours in the Presidio of San Francisco, the show that The Presidio Historical Association and I are resurrecting next year, was certainly one of them.

Wanting to continue racing his Jag and other older race cars that he’d acquired over the years, Sid and friends created the Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG).  About thirty years ago, I had the privilege of acting as a corner worker (“acting” being the operative term) for CSRG.  Over the years, Sid not only raced his XK-SS, but also his Maseratis.  He took his 1947 A6GCS Cycle Fender, the first cycle-fender racing Maserati brought to the States, to Italy’s latest incarnation of its Mille Miglia.  The car could be raced as a sports car with fenders on, or as a formula car without the fenders.  With increased displacement, that same model car won the F1 world championship with Fangio at the wheel.  A further developed model of it won Indy.  Always one for detail, he shared that the cars designation translated to A (first model), 6 (number of cylinders), G (Ghisa-“iron”), C (competition), S (sport).  He also raced a Tipo 61, aka the “Birdcage,” for its tubular chassis that resembled its namesake.  He also had a Lotus 17 front-engine formula car and a Lotus 18, which was a Formula Junior.  Sid continued to run in historic races until he was 85!

As Concours grew, so did Sid’s role.  He became both the voice of SCCA Concours and Chief of Concours.  Before a show, Sid would check the entry list, then research minutia on some twenty of the cars, mostly done in his personal library of auto related books that numbers between two-and three-thousand!  Then, he would share with the audience his seemingly infinite knowledge.  In later years, Sid developed “Walk through the Classics,” where he would, literally, take a walk through the Concours field, stopping at interesting cars to speak about them over an amplified audio system.  He earned the nickname “The Pied Piper of Concours,” as throngs would follow him around the field.  I know; I was one of his many minions.  I don’t know how great my knowledge base is compared to other enthusiasts, but I honestly believe that the majority of my auto-related understanding came from years of following Sid around at Concours, long before he and I were even introduced.  I wonder now, “Did Sid think that I was stalking him?”

Sid’s collective work on behalf of our club was recognized last year, when the San Francisco Region inducted him into its Hall of Fame.

Over the years, Sid has owned a magnificent group of cars, any of which most of our readers would be overjoyed to be the caretaker of.  In addition to those mentioned above, he also had a 3-1/2 litre Jag SS100, which he campaigned in the Colorado Grand road race against the Mormon Meteor that took Best of Show at Pebble Beach this August, and a ’26 Bugatti Type 38 that was poster car for the 2000 Sacramento Concours.  A copy of that poster is hanging in the hallway of my home.  His 1933 Chrysler CL Long Wheelbase 144” Imperial Custom Le Baron Phaeton with a sixteen-cylinder Cadillac engine, installed by Lou Fageol, was used for the logo of the Sacramento Concours. Sid chauffeured Herb Caen in Caen’s 80th birthday celebration in this car.  While Sid’s car collecting has wound down over the past few years, he still has a Primrose Series II E-Type roadster, parked in his home garage, as well as a ’37 Cord 812 Phaeton – in his favorite color combination of white over red - prominently displayed at The Candy Store. 

Oh…yes…and about The Candy Store.  In 1983, Sid and fellow Bay Area car collectors, including Jacques Harguindeguy, Bob Cole and Russell Head, decided to create what Sid has called “a yacht club for car guys.”  They rented the building that once housed the Burlingame Packard dealership, built in 1928, across the street from the Burlingame train station, remodeled it beautifully, packed it full of their collector cars and automobilia (Is there such a word?), and began having gatherings there.  The book Ultimate Garages by Phil Berg highlights twenty-four garages around the country; chapter one is dedicated to The Candy Store.  Earlier this year, I attended a function at The Candy Store.  NASCAR- types would call it “awesome!”  Formula 1-types would call it “fontostic(sic)!”

Another creation in which Sid was heavily involved was the Concours held for several
years at the Palace of Fine Arts in The City, a benefit for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation.  Yet another, and more recent, of his adventures was Steering Wheel West, a gallery for automotive artists to display their lovely creations.  And, more than a decade ago, from a desire to establish a monthly gathering for like-minded auto enthusiasts, Sid spawned the Lunch Bunch, which now meets at the Basque Cultural Center in “South City.”  An informal “club,” I was invited into the Lunch Bunch by Gil Gilfix of the Palo Alto Concours and Garth Norton, Lunch Bunch’s “Organizer,” for lack of a better title.  I immensely enjoy all of the meetings that I can attend, especially when Sid joins us.  It’s a great group, having a fair amount of crossover with the Candy Store membership.

At 91-years young, Sid is still revered by folks involved in the car collecting and vintage racing hobbies.  His passion hasn’t waned.  His knowledge of the objects of his affection is unparalleled by anyone I’ve met.  It’s been a pleasure getting to know Sid over the past year, or so, as he’s provided sage advice in our efforts to bring Concours d’Elegance back to The City.  Thank you, Sid, for sharing so much of your automotive history with me.  Thank you for all of your contributions to our hobbies and the friendships that you’ve nurtured over the many years.  And thank you for befriending and guiding this humble car guy.  I close this column with a quote from Sid.  As I was walking out his front door,   with his characteristically wry smile he said, “I did everything I wanted to do, and I had a ball.”