RIP, Jean Jennings

Jennings had worked at Car and Driver from 1980 to 1985 before leaving to start Automobile Magazine with the late David E. Davis in 1985.

Jennings would become editor-in-chief of Automobile in 2000 and remained with the magazine until 2014. She started her own Web site, Jean Knows Cars, and ran that until 2016.

Jennings first worked at the Chrysler Proving Ground in Michigan, working on vehicles and performing crash testing. She ended up at C/D at the urging of her brother, Paul Lienert, who is an automotive journalist himself. Their father Bob was an editor at industry bible Automotive News.

The award-winning Jennings guested on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and did correspondent work for Good Morning America. She’s also been inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.

My own interactions with Jennings were brief — I met her a few times on press events about a decade ago. I cannot say I knew her well, but I remember she had a lot of energy, a loud laugh, and a presence that commanded the room.

She’s also one of a handful of automotive journalists who I read growing up — folks who influenced how I saw this crazy industry. I didn’t read her as regularly as I should’ve, because I was more of a C/D reader than Automobile, but when I did I learned a lot. Jennings, Brock Yates, Patrick Bedard, John Philips, David E., Peter Egan, and a few others were the writers that had a huge effect on me when I was a young car enthusiast growing up in suburban Chicago.