GIANT OF MOTOR INDUSTRY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 14788, 29 September 1948, Page 4

GIANT OF MOTOR INDUSTRY

DEATH OF WILLIAM S. KNUDSEN

GREAT WORK IN PEACE AND WAR William S. Knudsen, giant of the motor-car industry in both war and peace, died at his home in Detroit at the age of G 9. Mr Knudsen was born in Copenhagen in 1379, attended school in that city and worked there asembling bicycles. He came to the United States at the age of 21, worked in a shipyard and then for a bicycle manufacturer. In 1911, he went to work for Ford, and in 1913 was put in charge of all that company's assembly plants in the United States. For more than two years, Mr Knudsen travelled around the country, helping carry out Ford's programme for "more and more production at a lower cost/' During World War I, he helped direct Eagle boat manufacture for the Navy, then returned to Ford. In 1921 Mr Knudsen became vicepresident and general manager of Chevrolet, and his subsequent fabulously successful achievements at General Motors made motor-car history. In 1537 he succeeded Alfred P. Sloan as president. In World War 11, Mr Knudsen. as chairman of the Office of Production Management, was given the enormous responsibility of converting plants to war output with a minimum of waste and lost time. In 1942 President Roosevelt designated him lieutenant general, in charge of Army production. Fie was awarded the Army's distinguished service medal in .1944.