Walter Percy Chrysler

On 2 April 1875, Walter was born in Wamego, Kansas, to an American railway engineer’s family. No one could have foreseen that he would embody the American dream as a renowned car maker, industrialist and founder of Chrysler.

His father’s profession tied his childhood to the railways. Fascinated by machinery and dreaming of becoming a locomotive driver, he entered a workshop where he improved locomotives and developed specialised tools.

Starting as a cleaner and apprentice fitter, he worked hard and qualified as a skilled mechanic. His rise owed as much to managerial talent as to effort. At thirty-three, he became the youngest director of the Chicago railway, later general manager of American Locomotive Co. Under him, a loss-making business prospered. In 1908, he first took an interest in cars; buying one transformed his life.

His technical and organisational talents brought him to Buick Motor, a General Motors division, as a manager in 1912. The job halved his salary, but confidence and love of cars persuaded him to accept. Production soon rose from twenty to 550 cars a day. GM’s founder and president then offered him the vice-presidency with a greatly increased salary.

Having started on $6,000 a month, Chrysler had $10 million in his bank account by 1920. Durant, GM’s founder, increasingly saw him as a rival, a fear that events would confirm.

Leaving the vice-presidency, Chrysler decided to build his own firm from several unprofitable car companies. His organisational talent attracted designers Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton and Carl Breer. Their first joint development was the Chrysler Six in 1920.

The young company grew at an extraordinary rate. Sales broke records; its dealer network reached 4,000 representatives, with revenues of $17 million.

Three years later, Walter became the first businessman named “Man of the Year”. From then on, Chrysler, with the later-acquired Dodge, Plymouth and De Soto brands, stood alongside Ford and General Motors as one of the industry’s three enduring pillars.

Continually improving products, Chrysler sought to stay ahead of rivals. Hydraulic brakes, power steering, an electronic voltage regulator, electronic ignition and a navigation computer established his pioneering reputation. The 1955 Chrysler C-300 was even excluded from racing because its new brakes gave it a substantial power advantage. Twenty years on, Chrysler had become the industry’s best producer of engines, transmissions and fuel tanks.

The 1920s and 1930s brought major growth through the founder’s exceptional personality. Later prosperity was aided by the equally famous manager Lee Iacocca.

In 1935, Chrysler stepped down as president and began his memoirs, published in 1937 as “Life of an American Workman”. Those who knew him were not surprised. Rising from ordinary worker to corporation president, he demonstrated that constant self-improvement could turn a poor worker into a billionaire.

Walter Percy Chrysler died on 18 August 1940, aged sixty-five. His remains rest in Sleepy Hollow, New York.