Dennis Kirban
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2009
SPECIAL INNER CIRCLE - MOLLY - 04-22-2010
The automotive world has lost a great talent and friend - Rollin Molly Sanders.
We are deeply saddened by the news that Molly lost his hard-fought battle with cancer on Monday, April 19th.
We received a call from his wife Terry with the sad news last night.
She wanted you to know...
"He's in heaven! He loved you guys and was always very thankful for your interest in his design and the attention you gave him.
Thanks for sharing with the Buick clubs and thank you for the wonderful stories and pictures people sent him. Their stories, pictures, and love really cheered him."
The date for his Memorial Service has not been confirmed, but it will be in about 3 weeks. We will be sure to let our Inner Circle members know the date and place. It would be great to have some Grand Nationals attend the service.
Terry specifically asked that NO flowers be sent. They are arranging for an education fund to be set up for their daughter Brooke (age 10), so contributions can be made in lieu of flowers.
She mentioned you can also go to Molly's Facebook page if you would like to download photos, memories or comments to share. Here is a link to his Facebook - Rollin Molly Sanders | Facebook
Terry wanted you all to know how much she appreciated the cards and notes you've sent. Since they were addressed to all 3 of them, Brooke would open the cards and read them to her Dad.
We will continue to update you as more information becomes available. We will also be contacting the major car magazines with information.
Condolences can be sent to:
Terry and Brooke Sanders
2959 Country Club Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Some of you may remember Molly's father, Mel - He attended our first Reunion event with Molly at the Johnsville Navy Base in 1992. If you would like to send him a card or note, here is his address:
Mel Sanders
21505 Mt. Olive Rd.
Elkins, AR 72727
We wanted to share some photos of Molly at some of our past events. They show how much he enjoyed the Buick community and what fun it was to have him join us.
PHOTO 1 - Shows Molly autographing some items at my 60th Birthday Reunion Bash in 2007. The photo on the left shows him signing items for Grand National owner Gene Kessler from Maryland on the left. The photos on the right show him autographing trunk lids. Some owners couldn't bring their cars to the event, so they actually took the trunk lid OFF the car and had Molly autograph it (bottom right photo.)
PHOTO 2 - Shows Molly in 2007 getting out of Paul Castle's "Silver Bullet" Turbo-T race car after they did a run down the country road where we live. It was quite a scene to watch!
PHOTO 3 - Shows the autographed print Molly gave me showing the original red design against the black final designed Grand National. This print was available from Epitome. Molly signed it "HAPPY 60th DENNIS! YOU'RE THE MAN. Molly 2007." It hangs predominately in my home office.
PHOTO 4 - Shows Molly at our old house in 2002. He's at our kitchen table "playing" with our granddaughter Devyn's toy school bus at our kitchen table. Left to Right in top photo - Molly, Darrell and Devyn Kirban, Pete Serio, Trey Crease, Pete Hoffman and John Spina. We have lots of fond memories for his visits with us at our various Reunion events.
(NOTE - Unfortunately we can't post these new photos on the website until Monday. Please check back next week). We will try to send out a second Inner Circle today with just the photos attached, and hopefully you can open them.
On the way to work this morning after learning about Molly, I saw a rollback from the junkyard that I deal with carrying a Lexus. I stopped at the junk yard this afternoon and told Ted (the junkyard owner) that I want the Lexus emblems off the car to put in my collection as a reminder of Molly.
Those of you that attended our various Reunion events truly remember the good times we had and how approachable Molly was. He was always amazed that the project he did for Buick would have such an impact years later. He will be missed greatly. Those of you that are lucky enough to have his signature on your trunk ID label are fortunate.
The most recent event he attended was my 60th Birthday Bash back in 2007. At these events he signed many of your trunk ID labels and was always eager to talk to Buick owners. He has always been amazed at the passion and support Buick owners have had for the car.
For those of you that are not familiar with Molly (Molly Designs), he is responsible for the Buick Grand National concept car, including the famous "Power Six" logo (also known as the Turbo Six logo) that adorns the Grand Nationals. He also did several projects for the Buick Motorsports program and the Turbo Riviera emblems. He did the very first Turbo Buick clothing line and was the design consultant for the hardbound GNX book. The highly sought after GNX jacket bears his Molly Design label.
Many people don't realize it, but they've probably already seen some of his design work. If you've ever seen the Lexus logo, a green Kawasaki motorcycle, a yellow or blue Yamaha factory race bike, a black Grand National, or any of the Toyota racecars or transport, then you've already been introduced to some of his creations!
Here is a link to Molly's website -
Molly Designs
Here's some bio information taken from Molly's website -
Many people don't realize it, but they've probably already seen some of our design work. If you've ever seen a Lexus logo, green Kawasaki motorcycle, yellow or blue Yamaha factory race bike, a black Buick Grand National, or any of the Toyota racecars or transporters, then you've already been introduced to some of our creations!
Molly Designs is located in Southern California, where we've worked with Toyota, Lexus, Yamaha, Kawasaki, GM, and many other major companies over the past four decades. Corporate logos plus high visibility graphics for race cars, motorcycles, and transporters have been our specialty, but we also create everything from running shoe designs to airplane graphics.
Our focus now is on creating graphics for race cars, motorcycles, tranporters and other vehicles, making and installing graphics using vinyl and paint, and designing logos to enhance the image of companies, fleets, and race teams.
Molly Designs is a Southern California based graphic and industrial design firm. We specialize in designing for the motorsports industry.
Deeply rooted in the Southern California lifestyle, we create many corporate logos and identities for clients including Lexus, Toyota, General Motors, Kawasaki and Yamaha.
Major companies world-wide come to Molly Designs to develop visually appealing products for the global market.
We have a love for everything that rolls, flies or floats. And we have a passion to make it all look "absolutely bitchin'."
Molly Designs creates Corporate ID through the use of logos and graphic schemes for companies including Toyota, Lexus, GM, Jeep, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Dan Gurney and others. Our designs have longevity--projects like the Kawasaki Green scheme and the Yamaha strobe graphic of the 70's are still being used today.
Our design studio has created logos, corporate graphics, specialty vehicles, and even clothing for major companies such as Toyota, Lexus, GM, Kia, Land Rover, Yamaha, and Kawasaki.
Molly became well known early in his career in Southern California under the name of Paint by Molly, taking his hobby of painting motorcycles and racecars during his high school and college years and opening Paint by Molly in 1965. Painting motorcycles for many Southern California motorcycle dealers attracted Kawasaki and later Yamaha to his studio, looking for graphics that would appeal to the taste of the U.S. buyers. Working both in Japan and California, Molly was responsible for the well-known "Kawasaki Green" and the popular "Yamaha Yellow" with the black and white strobe stripe made famous by world champion motorcycle racers Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson. More recently, Molly created the new Yamaha cobalt blue color scheme that has become an overnight success worldwide. Molly still works with Yamaha on special design projects, prototypes, and racing team graphics and paint.
Toyota used Molly's talents originally to help create awareness for their mini trucks with the custom "Yamahauler", which won trophies in almost every show it was entered in. Molly created the yellow, orange, and red color scheme that was used by Toyota for over twenty years. During this period Molly worked with Toyota in many creative areas, designing everything from logos to clothing lines, and racecar graphics to show cars, with many of his ideas finding their way into production. Currently Molly continues to work with many departments within Toyota in a much broader capacity, with one of the more visible current projects being to develop a graphic system for the race trucks, drivers' and crew uniforms and transporters for Toyota's entry into NASCAR truck racing.
Molly's relationship with Toyota has grown stronger with the years, and in 1987 he was asked to design a logo and signage for a new Toyota division . . . Lexus. His logo creation can be seen on Lexus vehicles and dealerships worldwide.
The red-black-and-gray-on-white color scheme, currently being used by Toyota, created a great opportunity for Molly to work his magic on transporters, clothing, racecars, brochures, and logos, expanding consumer awareness for Toyota's motorsports involvement in many racing venues. Toyota Racing Development has also benefited from Molly's artistic abilities, using his talents in logo, clothing, racecar, ground effects packages, and transporter designs.
Molly Designs created the M-Type ground effects packages for Toyota and some Kia vehicles. These helped create specialty vehicles targeted at a demographic that wanted their vehicles a little sportier than the average offering. While no longer producing our own ground effects our tradition of quality design lives on. Molly Designs has designed ground effects that can be found on the Toyota Camry and Corolla and are distributed soley through Toyota Dealers in markets across the country.
denniskirban@yahoo.com
Many of you have been fortunate enough to have met Molly at our various Reunion events dating back to the early 1990s....About 150-200 of you are lucky enough to have his autograph on your trunk ID label. Molly always enjoyed coming to these Turbo Buick events. We are deeply saddened...
Will try in the next day or so to post the photos we did to our members in this thread also.
The automotive world has lost a great talent and friend - Rollin Molly Sanders.
We are deeply saddened by the news that Molly lost his hard-fought battle with cancer on Monday, April 19th.
We received a call from his wife Terry with the sad news last night.
She wanted you to know...
"He's in heaven! He loved you guys and was always very thankful for your interest in his design and the attention you gave him.
Thanks for sharing with the Buick clubs and thank you for the wonderful stories and pictures people sent him. Their stories, pictures, and love really cheered him."
The date for his Memorial Service has not been confirmed, but it will be in about 3 weeks. We will be sure to let our Inner Circle members know the date and place. It would be great to have some Grand Nationals attend the service.
Terry specifically asked that NO flowers be sent. They are arranging for an education fund to be set up for their daughter Brooke (age 10), so contributions can be made in lieu of flowers.
She mentioned you can also go to Molly's Facebook page if you would like to download photos, memories or comments to share. Here is a link to his Facebook - Rollin Molly Sanders | Facebook
Terry wanted you all to know how much she appreciated the cards and notes you've sent. Since they were addressed to all 3 of them, Brooke would open the cards and read them to her Dad.
We will continue to update you as more information becomes available. We will also be contacting the major car magazines with information.
Condolences can be sent to:
Terry and Brooke Sanders
2959 Country Club Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Some of you may remember Molly's father, Mel - He attended our first Reunion event with Molly at the Johnsville Navy Base in 1992. If you would like to send him a card or note, here is his address:
Mel Sanders
21505 Mt. Olive Rd.
Elkins, AR 72727
We wanted to share some photos of Molly at some of our past events. They show how much he enjoyed the Buick community and what fun it was to have him join us.
PHOTO 1 - Shows Molly autographing some items at my 60th Birthday Reunion Bash in 2007. The photo on the left shows him signing items for Grand National owner Gene Kessler from Maryland on the left. The photos on the right show him autographing trunk lids. Some owners couldn't bring their cars to the event, so they actually took the trunk lid OFF the car and had Molly autograph it (bottom right photo.)
PHOTO 2 - Shows Molly in 2007 getting out of Paul Castle's "Silver Bullet" Turbo-T race car after they did a run down the country road where we live. It was quite a scene to watch!
PHOTO 3 - Shows the autographed print Molly gave me showing the original red design against the black final designed Grand National. This print was available from Epitome. Molly signed it "HAPPY 60th DENNIS! YOU'RE THE MAN. Molly 2007." It hangs predominately in my home office.
PHOTO 4 - Shows Molly at our old house in 2002. He's at our kitchen table "playing" with our granddaughter Devyn's toy school bus at our kitchen table. Left to Right in top photo - Molly, Darrell and Devyn Kirban, Pete Serio, Trey Crease, Pete Hoffman and John Spina. We have lots of fond memories for his visits with us at our various Reunion events.
(NOTE - Unfortunately we can't post these new photos on the website until Monday. Please check back next week). We will try to send out a second Inner Circle today with just the photos attached, and hopefully you can open them.
On the way to work this morning after learning about Molly, I saw a rollback from the junkyard that I deal with carrying a Lexus. I stopped at the junk yard this afternoon and told Ted (the junkyard owner) that I want the Lexus emblems off the car to put in my collection as a reminder of Molly.
Those of you that attended our various Reunion events truly remember the good times we had and how approachable Molly was. He was always amazed that the project he did for Buick would have such an impact years later. He will be missed greatly. Those of you that are lucky enough to have his signature on your trunk ID label are fortunate.
The most recent event he attended was my 60th Birthday Bash back in 2007. At these events he signed many of your trunk ID labels and was always eager to talk to Buick owners. He has always been amazed at the passion and support Buick owners have had for the car.
For those of you that are not familiar with Molly (Molly Designs), he is responsible for the Buick Grand National concept car, including the famous "Power Six" logo (also known as the Turbo Six logo) that adorns the Grand Nationals. He also did several projects for the Buick Motorsports program and the Turbo Riviera emblems. He did the very first Turbo Buick clothing line and was the design consultant for the hardbound GNX book. The highly sought after GNX jacket bears his Molly Design label.
Many people don't realize it, but they've probably already seen some of his design work. If you've ever seen the Lexus logo, a green Kawasaki motorcycle, a yellow or blue Yamaha factory race bike, a black Grand National, or any of the Toyota racecars or transport, then you've already been introduced to some of his creations!
Here is a link to Molly's website -
Molly Designs
Here's some bio information taken from Molly's website -
Many people don't realize it, but they've probably already seen some of our design work. If you've ever seen a Lexus logo, green Kawasaki motorcycle, yellow or blue Yamaha factory race bike, a black Buick Grand National, or any of the Toyota racecars or transporters, then you've already been introduced to some of our creations!
Molly Designs is located in Southern California, where we've worked with Toyota, Lexus, Yamaha, Kawasaki, GM, and many other major companies over the past four decades. Corporate logos plus high visibility graphics for race cars, motorcycles, and transporters have been our specialty, but we also create everything from running shoe designs to airplane graphics.
Our focus now is on creating graphics for race cars, motorcycles, tranporters and other vehicles, making and installing graphics using vinyl and paint, and designing logos to enhance the image of companies, fleets, and race teams.
Molly Designs is a Southern California based graphic and industrial design firm. We specialize in designing for the motorsports industry.
Deeply rooted in the Southern California lifestyle, we create many corporate logos and identities for clients including Lexus, Toyota, General Motors, Kawasaki and Yamaha.
Major companies world-wide come to Molly Designs to develop visually appealing products for the global market.
We have a love for everything that rolls, flies or floats. And we have a passion to make it all look "absolutely bitchin'."
Molly Designs creates Corporate ID through the use of logos and graphic schemes for companies including Toyota, Lexus, GM, Jeep, Kawasaki, Yamaha, Dan Gurney and others. Our designs have longevity--projects like the Kawasaki Green scheme and the Yamaha strobe graphic of the 70's are still being used today.
Our design studio has created logos, corporate graphics, specialty vehicles, and even clothing for major companies such as Toyota, Lexus, GM, Kia, Land Rover, Yamaha, and Kawasaki.
Molly became well known early in his career in Southern California under the name of Paint by Molly, taking his hobby of painting motorcycles and racecars during his high school and college years and opening Paint by Molly in 1965. Painting motorcycles for many Southern California motorcycle dealers attracted Kawasaki and later Yamaha to his studio, looking for graphics that would appeal to the taste of the U.S. buyers. Working both in Japan and California, Molly was responsible for the well-known "Kawasaki Green" and the popular "Yamaha Yellow" with the black and white strobe stripe made famous by world champion motorcycle racers Kenny Roberts and Eddie Lawson. More recently, Molly created the new Yamaha cobalt blue color scheme that has become an overnight success worldwide. Molly still works with Yamaha on special design projects, prototypes, and racing team graphics and paint.
Toyota used Molly's talents originally to help create awareness for their mini trucks with the custom "Yamahauler", which won trophies in almost every show it was entered in. Molly created the yellow, orange, and red color scheme that was used by Toyota for over twenty years. During this period Molly worked with Toyota in many creative areas, designing everything from logos to clothing lines, and racecar graphics to show cars, with many of his ideas finding their way into production. Currently Molly continues to work with many departments within Toyota in a much broader capacity, with one of the more visible current projects being to develop a graphic system for the race trucks, drivers' and crew uniforms and transporters for Toyota's entry into NASCAR truck racing.
Molly's relationship with Toyota has grown stronger with the years, and in 1987 he was asked to design a logo and signage for a new Toyota division . . . Lexus. His logo creation can be seen on Lexus vehicles and dealerships worldwide.
The red-black-and-gray-on-white color scheme, currently being used by Toyota, created a great opportunity for Molly to work his magic on transporters, clothing, racecars, brochures, and logos, expanding consumer awareness for Toyota's motorsports involvement in many racing venues. Toyota Racing Development has also benefited from Molly's artistic abilities, using his talents in logo, clothing, racecar, ground effects packages, and transporter designs.
Molly Designs created the M-Type ground effects packages for Toyota and some Kia vehicles. These helped create specialty vehicles targeted at a demographic that wanted their vehicles a little sportier than the average offering. While no longer producing our own ground effects our tradition of quality design lives on. Molly Designs has designed ground effects that can be found on the Toyota Camry and Corolla and are distributed soley through Toyota Dealers in markets across the country.
denniskirban@yahoo.com
Many of you have been fortunate enough to have met Molly at our various Reunion events dating back to the early 1990s....About 150-200 of you are lucky enough to have his autograph on your trunk ID label. Molly always enjoyed coming to these Turbo Buick events. We are deeply saddened...
Will try in the next day or so to post the photos we did to our members in this thread also.
does anybody know when the funeral day will be, it be nice if we showed respect by going to it in a parade with black buicks. 
