Remembering An American Automobile Legend...

Hello 1000 Bookies!!!

This week we lost an American Automobile Legend, Lee Iaccoca.  He was 94 years old.  We should all live to that ripe old age.  Lee Iaccoca was at one point President of Ford Motor Company and then Chrysler Motor Company.  Iaccoca was credited with bringing Chrysler back from bankruptcy in the 1980s. He was an American success story.  Iaccoca was the son of Italian immigrants who settled in the blue collar town of Allentown, PA, he would rise to run two American Automobile Manufacturers.  Lee Iaccoca was the force behind the development of the Ford Mustang and the Ford Pinto. 

My father was a huge fan of Lee Iaccoca and had hoped he would run for President one day.  Iaccoca actually entertained running as a Democrat in 1988.  In 1991, He was offered a seat in the United States Senate from Pennsylvania but turned it down. I always admired  Lee Iaccoca for his commitment to preserve the history of the immigrant experience.  President Reagan tapped him to lead the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation which led the revitalization efforts of the Statue of Liberty in time for her centennial in 1986.  Iaccoca remained on the board of directors of the Foundation to his death. 

I must confess, I am not much of a car guy.  And looking back, Lee Iaccoca was leading the industry that would be overtaken by foreign cars especially the Japanese car industry.  Chrysler produced The New Yorker and my father wanted to purchase this car.  I remember him driving it up into the driveway.  He bought a car from Lee Iaccoca and he was excited.  In short, the car was a piece of junk, constantly falling apart, even the fuel door wouldn't stay shut and my dad had to duct tape  the door down.  Iaccoca presided over the decline in the American Automobile industry.  His record was mixed.  His commitment to his country was more enduring. 

There are two books I would recommend--the first is Lee Iaccoca's Memoirs.  The second is the Fords by Collier and Horowitz.  The Fords gives an account of Henry Ford and the founding of Ford Motor Company.  Henry Ford Sr. the founder of the Model T, the assembly line and the Ford Motor Company is the star, alone with an interesting cast of characters--Edsel Ford, Henry Ford II (Hank the Deuce), Walter Chrysler, William Crapo Durant, Harry Bennett, Walter Reuther, Richard Frankenstein, Robert McNamara and Lee Iaccoca.  Henry Ford was no hero--he was anti-Semitic, he drove his only child to his death and he authorized the Battle of the Overpass against the UAW.   I did not know much about the politics and history in the automobile companies before I read this book and The Fords provides that early history.  We wish Godspeed to Mr. Lee Iaccoca 

Keep Reading My Friends!!!!