Walter P. Chrysler - an American dream career

The title of his autobiography, first published in 1937, is a befitting description of Walter P. Chrysler's self-concept: "The Life of an American Workman".



Walter P. Chrysler saw himself as an ordinary, curi-ous and technically-minded person who was intrigued by the functioning and mechanics of things. Diligence, self-discipline and clearly structured thinking, plus an intact family life, a sound education and that insatiable desire to understand technical things and to improve them to the best of his knowl-edge: these were the ingredients for one of those exceptional careers which are today frequently de-scribed with the from-dishwasher-to-millionaire cliche. However, this cliche did not apply to Walter P. Chrysler who did not have to make ends meet with odd jobs to become a legendary self-made man; he had a sheltered upbringing.



Walter Percy Chrysler was born in Wamego, in the north east of Kansas, on April 2, 1875, the third of four children of engineer Henry (Hank) Chrysler and his wife Anna née Breymann; both his parents were of German origin. When Walt was three years old, his father was transferred and the Chryslers moved to Ellis, Kansas; it was one of a large number of towns where life revolved around the railways. It was the same for the Chryslers; thanks to Hank's diligence, the family lived a life of modest prosper-ity. And so it seemed only reasonable for Walter to launch into a railway man's career himself.



After finishing high school in Ellis, Walter Chrysler started a four-year training as a machinist with Un-ion Pacific Railroad in 1893. He concluded this training as a journeyman at the age of 22 and left Ellis to work for Rio Grande & Western Railroad in Salt Lake City. In the following years, he worked for several large railway companies, earning himself a reputation as a competent expert with exhaustive knowledge. By 1900, he had earned and saved enough money to be able to marry his one and only, Della Forker, on June 4. At the time, he was employed as workshop manager at Colorado & Southern Railroad in Trinidad, Colorado, and studied electrical and mechanical engineering in correspondence courses in his spare time. Only 21 months later, he was chief mechanic, and at the age of just 29 he was the boss of a staff of 1,000. Due to his good reputation, he received attractive job offers. The next important stepping stone in his career was a job he accepted in 1908 at Chicago Great Western in Oelwein near Chicago. There he worked as a top manager, aged 33, and earning 350 dollars per month. During this time, he became interested in motor vehicles of which a growing number rumbled along the roads, most of which were in a deplorable state.



At the 1908 auto show in Chicago, he spontaneously bought his first car - a Locomobile priced 5,000 dollar. He had savings of 700 dollars and therefore had to borrow the remaining 4,300 dollars - from banker Ralph van Vechten. As Chrysler was unable to drive, he had is new acquisition transported to Oelwein by rail. According to legend, he dismantled and put together the car several times to under-stand the engineering and to see where he could improve things. At the same time, he learnt how to drive.
At the age of 36, his competence, diligence and leadership qualities had earned him the position of plant manager at American Locomotive Company (ALC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with an annual salary of 12,000 dollars. Through one of ALC's directors, James J. Storrow, Chrysler was finally given the opportunity to combine his enthusiasm for cars with professional activities in the automotive busi-ness. Storrow, an influential banker, was a director not only of ALC but also of General Motors, and he was looking for a competent man to refloat the Buick Division of GM. Storrow introduced Chrysler to Buick's CEO Charles W. Nash. The latter sent Chrysler a telegram, confirming his employment as plant manager at Buick in Flint, Michigan, from November 30, 1911 - rather reluctantly and offering him an annual salary of just 6,000 dollars. In his first complete year at Buick, 1912, Chrysler raised daily production from 20 to 550 cars.



In 1916 General Motor Company was restructured into General Motors Corporation, and Buick was incorporated as its first division. In 1917 Walter P. Chrysler was appointed president and managing director of Buick after Nash had left GM because of disputes with the new head of GM, William C. Durant. Under Chrysler's management, Buick became "GM’s biggest money maker". Chrysler's annual salary rose to 120,000 dollars plus the extra bonus of 380,000 dollars per year in GM stock. In 1919, Chrysler was appointed first vice president of GM by Durant but remained managing director of Buick. However, when Chrysler was passed over by Durant in important decisions, Chrysler left GM. At the age of 45, Walter P. Chrysler had earned a lot of money and was, in fact, a multi-millionaire. He could have retired and enjoyed his prosperity. But Chrysler had made a name for himself as a restorer and received attractive offers from industry. Motor manufacturer Willys-Overland had accumulated debts of over 50 million dollars, and the banks, being the main creditors, asked Walter Chrysler to refloat the company. Their spokesman was no other than Ralph van Vechten who had provided the loan for Chrysler's Locomobile in 1908 - and Chrysler accepted the offer in 1920. His brief was to restore Wil-lys-Overland within two years, at an annual salary of one million dollars. And he had succeeded in reducing the company's debts to 18 million dollars two years later.

During this time at Willys-Overland, Chrysler met the engineers Fred Zeder, Owen Skelton and Carl Breer who ran an engineering company in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and advised Willys-Overland on new car projects. The trio was to play a key role in realizing Walter P. Chrysler's dream of producing his own car at a later stage.

At roughly the same time as the restoration of Willys-Overland, Chrysler received the offer to refloat the ailing Maxwell Motor Corporation in Detroit, which also owned Chalmers. Chrysler adopted a sim-ple strategy in restoring the company: with the approval of the stockholders, Maxwell Motor Company declared itself bankrupt. Chrysler put up the highest bid for the company in the subsequent auction, and was now the owner of the new - and from then on flourishing - Maxwell Motor Corporation.



As early as 1922 he set out to develop his own ideas for a "new kind of automobile". Chrysler signed on his three friends, former Studebaker engineers Fred M. Zeder, Owen Skelton and Carl Breer, to translate his detailed plans into practice. Under the code name ZSB, the initials of Zeder, Skelton and Breer, and still on the Maxwell premises, they created the car Walter P. Chrysler introduced at the 1924 New York Motor Show as the first Chrysler - the foundation stone of the forthcoming Chrysler Corporation which was to become the second-largest motor manufacturer in the USA as early as 1933, behind GM and ahead of Ford.

On Saturday, June 6, 1925, Chrysler finally converted Maxwell Motor Corporation into Chrysler Corpo-ration. The new company with Walter P. Chrysler as its boss flourished right from the start. Thanks to cleverly negotiated contracts, Chrysler had no more money worries. From 1928, he received a monthly salary of 12,5000 dollars from Chrysler Corporation, plus an office in New York complete with staff, plus ten percent of the Chrysler Corporation's profits. In 1928, he was paid 2,466,941 dollars in profit shares alone, and 1,555,000 dollars in 1929.

Chrysler had been working incessantly all his life, and this was to take its toll eventually. For reasons of health, he had passed the position of president on to his friend Kaufman Thuma (K. T.) Keller in 1935 already, retaining only his position as chairman of the board of Chrysler Corporation. On May 26, 1938 he suffered a stroke from which he did not recover. In February 1940, he compiled written in-structions for his funeral, and he died on August 18, 1940, after his second stroke.

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