In 1957, Doug Keppler led Upsilon to racing glory by winning the soap box derby race down Bruin Walk during Greek Week. He was honored by a kiss from Miss Hollywood. In the photo, Carl Jaffe and Buckley Martin hoist him after the victory. Keppler got the driver’s job because he was small (the car was only 14 inches wide) and enthusiastic about racing. Keppler weighed less than 150 pounds, which allowed the car to stay under the 250-pound limit.
Paul Finwall, an engineering student, was instrumental in building the victorious car, and he also built a smaller 12-inch car that Pi Beta Phi used to win the Ladies Race.
Finwall raced in the Los Angeles All-American Soap Box Derby from 1946-49. Keppler’s car was one of three that Finwall helped build. “Most cars that I helped with were chopped up in pieces since I had always felt that if you didn’t win there was no point in keeping it. I would start over and build a new and better one for the next year,” he said. The car that Keppler raced was built and driven by a friend, Don Brown. Don came in second in the 1953 Los Angeles Race and missed going to Akron, Ohio, for the national finals by less than a foot. Finwall’s son Ken kept up the family and fraternity tradition by winning the L. A. Race in 1979, and he finished 4th at the nationals in Akron.
Finwall’s wife Judy is an Alpha Phi from UCLA, and he still meets with friends from the fraternity, Skip Keyzers, Emmett Tompkins and Mike Merz. Finwall retired after working as a test engineer and manager of testing laboratories for Northrup. He has two sons, one who is a racing car designer.
Keppler lives in Sierra Country in northern California and has traveled to jazz festivals in Monterey, Sacramento and Port Angeles this year.