It doesn't get much better than this as far as unbiased quotes go regarding Mr. Earl's being the undisputed pioneer of the automobile design profession. This 1962 Automotive News report, below, put it this way: 

"To say that Harley Earl pioneered the automobile styling in the modern day sense can hardly be challenged...."

This above news story, at right, was the last extensive interview a journalist, Barbara Holiday, would have with HJE before he passed away in 1969. As the title of the story attests, most people in Detroit knew exactly how big this man's role was in "THE MODERN" storytelling pie regarding the American Auto Industry's dramatic rise. 

What happened since this time, "regarding what would be told in history, on Harley Earl," is another story entirely.