In 1958, through the efforts of Clyde Anderson and Jim Engle, word spread around the Chicago area that an Austin-Healey Club would be formed as a regional club of the Austin-Healey Club of America, whose national headquarters was located in Bethesda, Maryland. At the first meeting in Chicago, a steering committee was given the job of setting up the Club. The committee wrote preliminary by-laws and addressed other matters in preparation for a March 1961 meeting, at which officers were elected and the Club was given the go-ahead to begin incorporation of the Midwest regional club.
 
The first official Club meeting was held May 8, 1961, at the Como Inn in Chicago with 29 charter members in attendance. The first Club officers were Chuck Anderson, regional director; Kenneth Rochocki, vice regional director; O.M. MacLeran, deputy regional director; Robert Flaherty, secretary; and Ernest Rysso, treasurer. The first regional Club newsletter, Healey Chatter, was published in June 1961 with Chuck Anderson as editor.