We’re all wild about Harry: From cars to a senior center, a look at the Dietert legacy

Published in the Kerrville Daily Times on June 7, 2025

Harry Dietert parks his 1915 Harry Mobile in Downtown Kerrville

An incredibly bright and determined teenager, born and raised in Kerrville, had two big ambitions in in life: To own his own motorcar and to get a college education. Neither were easy to obtain in Kerrville in 1915.

Harry Walter Dietert was born Oct. 30, 1896, in Kerrville. His grandfather, Christian Dietert, was a German master miller and millwright who is considered one of the founders of Kerrville. The Dietert family came to Kerr County in 1857 to establish a mill. Located on the Guadalupe River, near where the One Schreiner Center now stands, the Dietert Mill was Kerrville’s first water-powered grist and sawmill. 

The Dietert Mill and the Schreiner General Store are credited with giving Kerrville it’s “mercantile backbone” and bringing growth to the area. The Dietert family were also credited for bringing the tradition of Christmas trees to Kerrville and for introducing the waltz to the community through the many dances the family hosted. The family’s love of dancing will come up later in this column.

Harry’s father, Henry Dietert, was a hard-working rancher who was known as an expert judge of livestock and farm crops, but it wasn’t ranching or milling that captured Harry Dietert’s attention as a young man. It was the new-fangled “horseless carriage,” the automobile, that first sparked Harry’s interest in all things mechanical and led to a career in engineering. From the time he first drove a car, he never looked back.

Kerrville physicians Dr. E.E. Palmer (who I wrote about in an earlier article) and Dr. A.A. Roberts were among the first Kerrville residents to own and drive cars on the local roadways. Both men owned 1909 Brush automobiles and used them to make house calls around town. It was Roberts’ “horseless carriage” that got Harry’s heart beating for automobiles and was the first car that he drove. 

In 1912, Roberts was fed up with his temperamental Brush and put a “for sale” sign on the car. When Harry Dietert asked how much he wanted for the horseless carriage, Roberts told the 16-year-old that if he could fix it, he could have it. 

Dietert, unconcerned about whether he had the mechanical abilities to fix or even start the car, cranked the engine, jumped aboard and drove the Brush home.

He “roared home in a cloud of dusty glory and gasoline fumes.” I can only imagine what his family — and assorted livestock — thought as Dietert pulled into the family farm with his new contraption. Dietert and his father worked on the car, returned it to working order, and Dietert drove it during the summer of 1913. This makes Dietert the first teenaged car owner in the county. 

When the summer was over, Dietert sold the Brush and put the money away for college tuition. After the car was sold, he found living on the family farm with only a horse and buggy to be limiting for his social life, especially when the buggy had to be shared with two older brothers. Dietert didn’t have the money to buy another automobile, so he set to work building his own. 

A 1909 Brush, similar to the first car Harry ever drove and owned.

From a discarded motorcycle engine, bicycle wheels, lumber, scrap tin, screen wire and a salvaged steering wheel from a toy car, the Harrymobile was born in 1915.

The Harrymobile was a five-wheeled vehicle. The fifth wheel had a technical and economical function. Dietert could not afford a differential — a crucial component in the front or rear axle assembly that allows the car to turn without drivetrain windup. The only way he could figure out how to manufacture the component was mounting the engine on a wheel between the two rear wheels of the car. The headlamps were carriage lamps that had to be lit at night, and the seat was salvaged from a wagon. 

Finishing touches on the car were a bright red coat of paint and a brass, bulb-type horn. 

Once again, Dietert made the local history books, being the first person in Kerr County to manufacture his own car.

According to a 2007 article by Joe Herring Jr., the Harrymobile originally only had room for the driver to ride in it. The photo in Herring’s collection of the original one-seater build was the inspiration for a mural on the side of the Napa Auto Parts building, facing Clay Street. The vehicle was eventually rebuilt to accommodate a passenger.  

Dietert often joked that all the other boys in high school were tall, played football and enjoyed the popularity with the girls, so he built his sporty two seater to give him an edge over the other guys to get dates. 

A story written about Dietert by Ilyne McJimsey Olson said that on several occasions, the local sheriff suggested to Dietert that the noisy contraption not be driven down the main street because it frightened the horses. However, for Dietert, this “unique attraction provided the prestige he needed. The girls were all eager for a date with him and a chance to ride in his Harrymobile.”

Now that the dream of owning a car had been realized, Dietert focused on his dreams of going to college. During his final year at Tivy High School, he started sending off for college catalogues. He had an agreement with his father that if he stayed and helped on the family farm for two years, the profits earned from the farm would be shared with the would-be college student. Fortunately, those years were prosperous, and he was finally able to apply to colleges. Several schools, including his dream school, Rice Institute in Houston, turned him down because the Kerrville school was not accredited, but he didn’t give up. After more than 20 rejections, he received acceptance and a warning from Highland Park College, a small school in Des Moines, Iowa. The school took him on the condition that he would be sent home if he could not keep up with the coursework.

Dietert realized that even though his tuition was paid, he was going to need a good suit and an overcoat to fit in with college life in a northern state. The Harrymobile had to be sold so that he could buy those items. With the funds from the sale of his homemade automobile, Dietert bought a blue serge suit that lasted him through several years of college.

He eventually transferred to Iowa State University to study mechanical engineering, proving to those who recommended that he stick with liberal arts studies that he was up to the challenges of more difficult studies. 

In 1920, Dietert graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in electrical engineering. By 1923, he had earned a master’s degree from the University of Illinois.

Dietert began his career as an engineer at the Westinghouse Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The pay of a young engineer did not go very far, so Dietert turned his family’s love of dancing into a way to make extra money. He formed the Bachelor’s Alliance, a club that unmarried Westinghouse engineers would pay a fee to join. The club would then host dances and socially prominent young ladies would be invited. The mothers of Philadelphia were happy to send their daughters to attend Bachelor’s Alliance dances, as there was always a good orchestra and liquor was forbidden. The success of the Alliance meant more young men would be paying Dietert to join the club.

After his apprenticeship at Westinghouse ended, Dietert came back to Texas to accept a teaching position at Rice Institute, the dream college that had earlier turned down his application. It was here that he met an undergraduate student named Alma Davidson. The liberal arts major from Corsicana became his wife on June 15, 1925. Soon after their wedding, the couple moved to Detroit, Michigan, where Dietert founded a business based on his love of automobiles. He pioneered processes used for shaping molten metal into car parts. It was through this work that Dietert became an internationally known authority on molding materials and received 98 technical and engineering patents.

Harry and Alma Dietert in the 1956 Kerrville Centennial Parade with the rebuilt Harrymobile.

As his prosperity grew, Alma and Harry Dietert began to travel the world and, of course, started building a collection of classic cars. Among his collection of cars were a 1934 Pierce Arrow, a 1911 Brush (a tribute to the first car he ever drove), a 1931 Super Stutz and the favorite in his collection, a 1922 Stutz Bearcat. The Dieterts often traveled to car shows around the country and earned several trophies for the cars in their collection.

When Dietert’s father died in 1944, he helped manage the family ranch and eventually established businesses in Kerr County. His first Kerr County venture was a testing lab in Ingram, in a storefront next to where the Ingram Grocery is now located. In 1954, Harry and Alma moved full time to Kerrville, just in time for the 1956 Kerrville Centennial Celebration.  Dietert rebuilt his Harrymobile for the event — the rebuild looked a lot like the original, only this time it had a larger engine and several unspecified improvements. Dietert drove the second Harrymobile in the 1956 Kerrville Centennial parade and in Kerrville’s 1976 United States Bi-Centennial parade. Dietert was often seen driving his Harrymobile around Kerrville until his death in 1978.

Harry and Alma Dietert were more than just car enthusiasts, they were also civic leaders and philanthropists. Their interest in youth and education led to the construction of the Dietert Chapel-Auditorium at Schreiner University. They supported many organizations in Kerrville, but the biggest impact the couple left on our community is the Dietert Center.

The efforts to build a senior citizen’s center in Kerrville began in 1967, when Patricia Ernst, the volunteer coordinator for the Kerrville State Hospital, and Nell Lenard, administrator at Hilltop Village, saw photos of successful senior citizens’ centers in other communities. Through the efforts of Lenard and Ernst, Kerrville was awarded a three-year federal grant to start a senior center if they could get in-kind support from an incorporated body. The Kerrville State Hospital pledged the support, but they weren’t allowed to buy or construct a building with the money.

Lenard approached Dietert to ask his advice, which led the Dieterts to purchase a six-room rock house at 617 Jefferson St. to use as a senior center. His stipulation was that its operation must be successful within the three-year grant period. If the center was successful, the property would be deeded over to the State Hospital Volunteer Services Council. The center had its first open house in fall 1969, under the name of The Dietert Claim. Over the years, the center was enlarged to house its growing programs, until the organization outgrew the little house.

In April 2007, the current Dietert Center building was dedicated, and today the center serves more than 3,529 adults in Kerr County and the Meals on Wheels program provides close to 70,000 meals to elderly shut-ins throughout the year. In honor of the man who made it all possible, the Harrymobile stands in the center’s lobby, a testament to a man who was not only successful at realizing his dreams — Harry Dietert was a man who shared the fruits of success with the community where his dreams first took shape.