Lee Iacocca

One of the most successful automobile industry executives of the late 20th century, Lee Iacocca elevated the Ford Motor Company during in the 1960s before reviving the fortunes of the failing Chrysler Corporation in the 1980s. Born Lido Anthony Iacocca in Allentown, Pennsylvania, he received a primary education in cars from his father, Nicola, an Italian immigrant who had risen from hot dog vendor to owner of several movie theaters and one of the country's first car-rental companies. He also learned the importance of endurance and striving for betterment after a bout of rheumatic fever, which left him unable to compete in school sports or enlist in the military. Iacocca focused on his studies, and after graduating with honors from Allentown High School in 1942, he earned his degree in industrial engineering after only three years at Lehigh University. Ford hired him for an executive training program, which he put on hold to earn his master's degree in mechanical engineering from Princeton University; upon returning to the auto manufacturer in 1946, he moved into the sales department, where he drew national recognition for the "56 for '56" campaign, which offered loans on 1956 model year cars with 20% down and $56 in monthly payments. The pitch earned him a spot at Ford's headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan, where again, he rose swiftly up the ranks from general manager of the Ford division to vice-president of its car and truck group in 1965. During this period, Iacocca also oversaw some of the company's, and the American auto industry's most iconic vehicles, including the Mustang, which earned $11 billion in net profits between 1964 and 1966, as well as the Maverick, the Lincoln Continental Mark III, and the return of the Mercury line of cars, which soon encompassed the Cougar and Marquis. By 1970, he had been promoted to president of Ford, though his tenure at that position was marked by conflict with the company's flinty chairman, Henry Ford II. Despite posting yearly profits in the billions, Ford ousted Iacocca in 1978, reportedly on the grounds that he simply did not like him. Within several months' time, Iacocca was back in the auto industry, now as the head of the Chrysler Corporation. The automaker had been struggling for several years due to costly recalls and the loss of its Europe division to Peugeot; in response, Iacocca set in motion a series of cuts to labor, as well as a series of efficient and inexpensive minivans, several of which, like the K-car and Plymouth Reliant, he had initially proposed at Ford. He also secured the company's faltering finances through a historic loan guarantee, approved by the United States Congress, which brought the company a much-needed infusion of $1.5 billion. Sales of minivans - buoyed by an advertising campaign featuring Iacocca himself - allowed Chrysler to not only pay back its loan, but also buy AMC and its Jeep division. The latter would provide Iacocca with one additional top-selling vehicle - the Grand Cherokee, which arrived on the market shortly after his retirement from Chrysler in 1993. By this point, Iacocca was one of the most admired and successful businessmen in America - so much so that he was considered a front-runner for a presidential campaign in 1988. But he abandoned the idea to focus on a variety of other endeavors, including the Olivo line of olive-oil products, the Koo Koo Roo restaurant chain, and a position on the board of MGM Grand; the latter would come into sharp focus when he and company chairman Kirk Kerkorian mounted a hostile takeover bid of Chrysler in 1995. But their effort was repelled, which left bad blood between Iacocca and his former company, though he would speak fondly about his time there in interviews and returned to rally its workers in 2009 shortly before its bankruptcy in 2008. He remained active as a philanthropist for the fight against type 1 diabetes, which claimed the life of his first wife, Mary, in 1983, and as supporter for various Republican candidates. Iacocca succumbed to complications from Parkinson's disease at the age of 94 in his home in Bel Air, California, on July 2, 2019.