OBITUARY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22198, 27 August 1935, Page 9

OBITUARY

MR. JOHN WILLYS FORMER AMBASSADOR (Received August 2S, 6.15 p.m.) NEW YORK. Aug. 25 The death is announced of Mr. John Willys, motor-car manufacturer, formerly United States Ambassador to Poland. The late Mr. John North Willvs waa born at Canandaigua, New York' State, m October, 1873, and educated at a public school. He began his business career in a bicycle shop in his native town in 1890, but a few years later moved to Elmira and organised the Elmira Arms Company. He also began to make money by selling motor-cars and gradually developed a big business. In 1907 Mr. Willys bought the Indianapolis plant of a motor-car company and started the manufacture of cars. His balance of capital, however, was not very large and it was not long before he found himself in financial difficulties. He could not raise the small sum he needed for wages to keep his little staff at work. However, he was a man of resource. Going to the clerk of a hotel in Indianapolis whom he happened to know, he put the situation before him persuasively and the outcome was that the clerk made a collection for him which produced £7O. That sura was sufficient to remove all his troubles and, using it judiciously, he got the business going smoothly again and developed it into a highly profitable concern.

In 1909 Mr. Willys acquired a plant at Toledo, Ohio, and established the Willys Overland Company and also the Willys Morrow Company, of both of which he was president.. By 1929 he controlled more than 30 large undertakings in the motor trade,. one •of which was capitalised at £15,000,000. His interests extended to England, for ho was president of Willys-Overland Crossley, Limited, of Stockport. When Mr. Willys was in England in May, 1929. his\>nly daughter Virginia, a girl of 18, was received at Court and a few days later was married to Senor Luis Marcelino de Aguirre, a wealthy South American rancher. Mr. Willys owned one of the most valuable collections of paintings in Ohio. He was United States Ambassador to Poland 1930-32.