"A War In The Corporation"

Just as the Detroit News reported on Thursday, April 10, 1969 - almost every one of Harley Earl's newspaper obituaries mention his status being the trailblazer who founded the American automobile design profession. Read some more headlines further down at this section. 

It's truly amazing that 9 out of 10 execs of General Motors today (this simple oversight has a lot to do with why this company's in such a precipitous downtrend) don't know that Harley Earl was a talented engineer. Don't take our word for it, read the words in the second column, directly below, and you'll see that Designer-Earl was originally hired into GM as a "consulting engineer."

Most auto journalists are shocked today when they find out the extent of how little most executives inside GM know about Earl. If they know him at all, it's not because Earl invented the car design profession it's usually, "oh yea, he was that famous stylist who did the fins." A March 14, 2004 Boston Globe news story by Royal Ford titled, Father of American Car Design Just Won't Fade Away put it this way: "If you are not an engineer, do you figure out how to bend glass, safely eliminate the central support system of hard-top cars to make them sportier, lower the stance, and lengthen Henry Ford's boxes to turn them into sleek cruisers? Do you take the fins from a Lockheed aircraft and aerodynamically adapt them to the automobile, use fiberglass in the construction of America's first true sports car, the Corvette?" 

In the right column of Earl's Detroit News obit above there's a red arrow pointing to "we almost started a war in the corporation." So, it's kind of strange that legions of Detroit finest auto execs today either don't understand what this renaissance man really did in auto world history, or even worse, underestimate his rise-to-the-top story? No doubt this has something to do with why the Big Three has struggled so badly over the last forty years.

A March 14, 2004 Boston Globe news story titled, Father of American Car Design Just Won't Fade Away put it this way regarding Earl's engineering prowess: "If you are not an engineer, do you figure out how to bend glass, safely eliminate the central support system of hard-top cars to make them sportier, lower the stance, and lengthen Henry Ford's boxes to turn them into sleek cruisers? Do you take the fins from a Lockheed aircraft and aerodynamically adapt them to the automobile, use fiberglass in the construction of America's first true sports car, the Corvette?" 

The 1958 NEWSWEEK article, shown above, reports on how America's auto design pioneer set up an exclusive agreement with GM. What was not reported at this time in auto history, was how this designer had independent powers like a Hollywood director.

Various testimonials from this man's obituaries:

Detroit Free Press - April 10, 1969

Harley J. Earl retired General Motors Corp. vice president who proved to the automobile industry that high styling creates high sales, died Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida. Mr. Earl first demonstrated a flair for styling while learning designing and drafting in his father's California carriage works, and by the time he retired from GM he had left the Earl imprint on a conservatively estimated 50 million GM vehicles. The success of his craftsmanship was such that he also profoundly influenced the design of millions of competitors' cars.

United Press International - April 10, 1969

Headline: "The Father of Modern American Auto Styling Dies"

Automotive News - April 14, 1969

Headline: "Harley J. Earl, 75; Father of Automotive Styling

The Evening Star, Washington, D.C. - April 11, 1969:

Headline: "Harley Earl, Ex-GM Aide; Automotive Styling Pioneer

Ann Arbor News - April 11, 1969

Headline: "Auto Styling Pioneer Dies"

The Pontiac Press - April 15, 1969:

Headline: "Styling Pioneer for GM Dies at 75 in Florida City"

Probably our sleek modern-day automobiles are the direct result of Harley Earl's early pacesetting trend which was the first touch of class and beauty aimed at appealing to the feminine side of the car market. The first full-time automobile design department in the auto industry was established by Mr. Earl for General Motors Corporation. When he retired he was a GM Vice President with a list of engineering innovations that went from erasing running boards to the concept of the first experimental "dream car." Harley Earl had an eclat and was able to translate it to the industry he loved so much.