NEWS FLASH : Former railroad mechanic and machinist from small town in Kansas becomes automotive success.
Who would have known? Who could have known? Walter Chrysler did come from a small Kansas town and he was a machinist and railroad mechanic before he became famous and had his name emblazoned on hundreds of thousands of cars. By the end of his life he was incredibly wealthy and had built an empire that would carry his famous name into the next century and most likely, beyond.
Walter Chrysler worked for the railroads for several years when he was a young man and while he was doing that he earned a mechanical degree from a correspondence school. Apparently he never wasted any of his time while he was on this planet. During his railroad stint, Chrysler learned even more about the mechanical universe that surrounded him and moved up to master mechanic, superintendent and then works manager for an entire railroad firm.
Back in the early 1900s when Chrysler was knee deep in railroad soot, an executive of General Motors and he soon became involved with Buick, one of the brands in the GM stables. He became general manger of production there and was able to cut costs while maintaining high quality. Not long after accepting this position, Chrysler’s talents became apparent to the founder of GM and he was offered the enormous amount of $10,000 a month with a bonus of half a million dollars each year. This made Chrysler a rich man, as a dollar then would be valued at about 16 times its face value today. He also was given GM stock, which he sold for over $10 million when he left the company a few years later.
Walter Chrysler’s management skill did not go unnoticed when he left Buick and GM. He was invited to Willys-Overland Motor Company to turn it around and was paid a million dollars a year. When he left Willys, (yes, the company that would eventually produce the famous Jeeps), Chrysler took over Maxwell Motor Company and changed its name to the Chrysler Corporation. Mr. Chrysler was so successful with his own brand that he added two other production cars to his company, DeSoto and Plymouth, which were successful in their own right.
This man was one of the industrial elite in America at this time. He built the great Chrysler Building in New York City in the 1920s and was named Man of the Year in 1928 in Time Magazine. It’s amazing what a small town boy can do when he puts his mind to it.
Source: St. Marys Chrysler
