John Zachary DeLorean (January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005) was an American engineer and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, and founder of the DeLorean Motor Company.
He was most well known for developing the Pontiac GTO muscle car, the Pontiac Firebird & the DeLorean DMC-12 sports car, which was later featured in the movie Back to the Future , and for his high profile 1982 arrest on charges of drug trafficking in an apparent attempt to raise funds for his struggling company, which declared bankruptcy that same year. He successfully defended himself against these charges, showing that his alleged involvement was a result of entrapment by federal agents.
Early life
John Zachary DeLorean was born on January 6, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan, the eldest of four sons of Zachary and Kathryn Pribak DeLorean.
DeLorean's father was a millwright, the youngest of thirteen children, who immigrated from Romania to America when he was twenty. He spent time in Montana and Gary, Indiana before moving to Michigan. By the time his son, John, was born, he had found employment as a union organizer at the Ford Motor Company factory in nearby Highland Park. His poor English and lack of education prevented him from higher-paid work. When not required at Ford, he occasionally worked as a carpenter.
DeLorean's mother was an immigrant from Hungary, and was employed at the Carboloy Products Division of General Electric throughout much of DeLorean's early life. She accepted work whenever found to supplement the family's low income. She generally tolerated her husband's erratic behavior, but during several of the worst times of Zachary's violent tendencies, she would take her sons to live with her sister in Los Angeles, California, and would stay there for a year or so at a time.
DeLorean's parents divorced in 1942, and John subsequently saw little of his father, who moved into a boarding house, becoming a solitary and estranged alcoholic. Several years after the divorce, John visited his father, finding him so impaired by alcohol that they could barely communicate.
Education
DeLorean attended Detroit's public grade schools, and was then accepted into Cass Technical High School, a technical high school for Detroit's honor students, where he signed up for the electrical curriculum. DeLorean found the Cass experience exhilarating and he excelled at his studies. His academic record and musical talents earned him a scholarship at Lawrence Institute of Technology (now known as Lawrence Technological University), a small but illustrious Detroit college that was the alma mater of some of the automobile industry's best draftsmen and designers. At Lawrence, he excelled in the study of industrial engineering, and was elected to the school's honor society.
World War II interrupted his studies. In 1943, DeLorean was drafted for military service and served three years in the U.S. Army and receiving an honorable discharge. He returned to Detroit to find his mother and siblings in economic difficulty due to the strains of Kathryn's single income. DeLorean worked as a draftsman for the Public Lighting Commission for a year and a half to improve his family's financial status, then returned to Lawrence to finish his degree. While back in college, he worked part-time at Chrysler and at a local body shop, presaging his later contributions in the automotive industry. DeLorean graduated in 1948 with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering.
Instead of entering the engineering workforce after earning his degree, DeLorean sold life insurance, and later worked for the Factory Equipment Corporation. DeLorean states in his autobiography that he sold life insurance to improve his communications skills. Both endeavors were successful financially, but DeLorean held little interest in these areas. DeLorean's uncle Earl Pribak, a foreman at Chrysler's engineering garage, recommended that he apply for work at Chrysler and DeLorean agreed. Chrysler ran a post-graduate educational facility named the Chrysler Institute of Engineering, which allowed DeLorean to advance his education while gaining real-world experience in automotive engineering.
In 1952, DeLorean graduated from the Chrysler Institute with a masters degree in automotive engineering and joined Chrysler's engineering team. DeLorean also attended night classes at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business to earn credits for his MBA, which he completed in 1957.
Career
Packard Motor Company
DeLorean's time at Chrysler lasted less than a year, ending when he was offered a US$14,000 salary at Packard Motor Company under supervision of noted engineer Forest McFarland. DeLorean quickly gained the attention of his new employer with an improvement to the Ultramatic automatic transmission, giving it an improved torque converter and dual drive ranges; it was launched as the "Twin-Ultramatic".
Packard was experiencing financial difficulties when DeLorean joined, due to changes in the automobile consumer market. While Ford, General Motors and American Motors had begun producing affordable mainstream products, Packard, Ewing, and Marquette clung to their pre-WWII era notions of high-end, precisely engineered luxury cars. This exclusive philosophy was to take its toll on profitability. However, it proved to have a positive effect on DeLorean's attention to engineering detail, and after four years at Packard he became McFarland's successor as head of research and development.
While still a profitable company, Packard suffered alongside other independents as it struggled to compete when Ford and General Motors engaged in a price war. James Nance, President of Packard, decided to merge the company with Studebaker Corporation in 1954. A subsequent proposed merger with American Motors Corporation never passed the discussion phase. DeLorean considered keeping his job and moving to Studebaker headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, when he received a call from Oliver K. Kelley, vice president of engineering at General Motors, a man whom DeLorean greatly admired. Kelley called to offer DeLorean his choice of jobs in five divisions of GM.
General Motors
Pontiac
DeLorean accepted a $16,000 salary offer with a bonus program, choosing to work at GM's Pontiac division as an assistant to chief engineer Pete Estes and general manager Semon "Bunkie" Knudsen. Knudsen was the son of the former president of GM, William Knudsen, who was called away from his post to head the war mobilization production effort at the request of President Roosevelt. Knudsen was also a MIT engineering graduate, and at 42 he was the youngest man to head a division of GM. DeLorean and Knudsen quickly became close friends, and DeLorean eventually cited Knudsen as a major influence and mentor.
DeLorean's years of engineering at Pontiac were highly successful and produced dozens of patented innovations for the company, and in 1961 he was promoted to the position of division chief engineer. He is credited with developments such as wide-track wheels, torque-box perimeter frame, recessed and articulated windshield wipers, the lane-change turn signal, overhead-cam six-cylinder engine, Endura bumper, and a variety of other cosmetic and structural design elements.
DeLorean's most notable contribution to Pontiac was the Pontiac GTO ( Gran Turismo Omologato ), a muscle car named after the Ferrari 250 GTO. It evolved from the practical 1961 Pontiac Tempest, which DeLorean later evolved into the Pontiac LeMans. The GTO debuted as a Tempest/LeMans option package with a larger, more powerful engine in 1964. It is credited for saving Pontiac from their dated stigma as producer of the "old lady's car" by creating a design that symbolized a generation of new, younger, more affluent drivers with a need for speed and style.
From its launch in 1964, sales of the car and its popularity continued to grow dramatically in the following years. DeLorean received almost total credit for the success of the "first muscle car", which is probably due in large part to his talent for self-promotion. As with any new vehicle development, scores of individuals are involved with the conceptualizing, engineering, and marketing – but John DeLorean became the singular golden boy of Pontiac, and was rewarded with his 1965 promotion to head the entire Pontiac division.
DeLorean was no longer a professional engineer. At the age of 40, he had broken the record for youngest division head at GM, and was determined to continue his string of successes. Adapting to the frustrations that he perceived in the executive offices was, however, a difficult transition for him. DeLorean believed there was an undue amount of infighting at GM between divisional heads, and several of Pontiac's advertising campaign themes met with internal resistance, such as the "Tiger" campaign used to promote the GTO and other Pontiac models in 1965 and 1966.
In response to the "pony car" market dominated by the wildly-successful Ford Mustang, DeLorean turned to the 14th Floor for permission to offer a Pontiac version of a similar vehicle then under development at the Chevrolet division that was set for introduction as the 1967 model Camaro. DeLorean's version was rejected due to GM's concern that his design would take away sales from the Corvette, their flagship performance vehicle, so instead they forced him to work with the existing Camaro design. He could only make changes to the
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