SANTA MONICA, Calif., March 28 (UPI) -- Robert E. Petersen, who turned his love of cars into a string of popular magazines, including Hot Rod and Motor Trend, has died at 80 in Santa Monica, Calif.
Petersen, who lived in Beverly Hills, died Friday of neuroendocrine cancer, said Patrick Cole, a spokesman for the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles.
"Mr. Petersen helped create and feed the American obsession with the automobile," museum director Dick Messer told The New York Times. "He understood the thrill that an average person could get from seeing and reading about horsepower."
Petersen, chairman of Petersen Publishing, started Hot Rod in 1948 as an eight-page magazine he sold for a quarter. By the time he sold his company, it had 27 regular monthly magazines and 30 others published periodically, with a total circulation of about 43 million.
Its publications also included Car Craft, Rod & Custom, Motorcyclist, Guns & Ammo, Circle Track, Off Road, Photographic, Snowboarder and Skin Diving. The company was also home to several magazines for teenagers, including Sassy, Teen and Tiger Beat.
Petersen is survived by his wife.
