Lee Iacocca | |
|---|---|
 Iacocca in 1972 | |
| Born | Lido Anthony Iacocca (1924-10-15)October 15, 1924 Allentown, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | July 2, 2019(2019-07-02) (aged 94) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupations |
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| Years active | 1946–1992 |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 2 |
| Writing career | |
| Genre | |
| Subject | |
| Notable works | Iacocca: An Autobiography |
Lido Anthony "Lee"Iacocca (/ˌaɪ.əˈkoʊkə/EYE-ə-KOH-kə; October 15, 1924 – July 2, 2019) was an American author, engineer, and an executive who developed theFord Mustang,Continental Mark III, andFord Pinto cars while at theFord Motor Company in the 1960s, and then revived theChrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s.[1] He was president of Chrysler from 1978 to 1991 and chairman and CEO from 1979 until his retirement at the end of 1992. He was one of the few executives to preside over the operations of two of the United States'Big Three automakers.[2]
Iacocca authored or co-authored several books, includingIacocca: An Autobiography (withWilliam Novak), andWhere Have All the Leaders Gone?.
Iacocca was born inAllentown, Pennsylvania, on October 15, 1924, to Nicola Iacocca and Antonietta Perrotta, Italian Americans fromSan Marco dei Cavoti, who settled in thesteel producing region of theLehigh Valley in easternPennsylvania. Members of his family opened a restaurant,Yocco's Hot Dogs, which has since grown to five locations in Allentown and its suburbs.[3] Iacocca was reportedlychristened with the unusual name "Lido" because he was conceived during his parents' honeymoon in theLido district inVenice. However, he denied the basis for his christened name in his autobiography, calling it romantic but untrue; his father, Iacocca wrote, travelled to Lido with the brother of his future wife, long before the marriage.[4]
Iacocca attendedAllentown High School in Allentown, where he graduated with honors in 1942. He then attendedLehigh University in neighboringBethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree inindustrial engineering.[2] At Lehigh University, he was a member ofTau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, andTheta Chi fraternity.
After graduating from Lehigh, he won the Wallace Memorial Fellowship and attendedPrinceton University, where he earned amaster's degree inmechanical engineering in 1946.[5]
Iacocca joinedFord Motor Company in August 1946 as an engineer. After this brief stint in engineering, he asked to be moved to sales and marketing, where his career flourished. While working in thePhiladelphia district as assistant sales manager, Iacocca gained national recognition with his "56 for '56" campaign, offering loans on 1956 model year cars with a 20% down payment and $56 (~$648.00 in 2024) in monthly payments for three years.[6] His campaign went national, and Iacocca was called to theDearborn headquarters, where he quickly moved up through the ranks. On November 10, 1960, Iacocca was named vice-president and general manager of the Ford Division; in January 1965 Ford's vice-president, car and truck group; in 1967, executive vice-president; and president on December 10, 1970.
Iacocca participated in the design of several successful Ford automobiles, most notably theFord Mustang, theContinental Mark III, theFord Escort and the revival of theMercury brand in the late 1960s, including the introduction of theMercury Cougar andMercury Marquis. He promoted other ideas that did not reach the marketplace as Ford products, including cars ultimately introduced by Chrysler: theK car and theminivan. Iacocca also convinced company bossHenry Ford II to return to racing, claiming several wins at theIndianapolis 500,NASCAR, and the24 Hours of Le Mans.[7]
Eventually, he became the president of the Ford Motor Company, but he clashed withHenry Ford II. On July 13, 1978, Iacocca was fired from Ford, even though the company posted a $2 billion profit for the year (about $9.64 billion in 2024[8]).[9]
In 1968, Iacocca foresaw the need for domestically produced, small, fuel-efficient vehicles,[10] and proposed a vehicle that weighed less than 2,000 pounds and would be priced at less than $2,000 (about $18,000 in 2024[8]). Although Ford's European subsidiary was already selling such a model, theFord Escort, a team of Ford designers was assigned to create the exterior and interior of an entirely new car, which would be named Pinto. The Pinto entered production beginning with the 1971 model year. Iacocca was described as the "moving force" behind theFord Pinto.[11]
In 1977, there were allegations that the Pinto's structural design allowed itsfuel-tank filler neck to break off and thefuel tank to be punctured in arear-end collision, resulting in deadly fires.[10] In 1978, all 1971–76 Pintos were recalled and had safety shielding and reinforcements installed to protect the fuel tank.[10]
Iacocca was strongly courted byChrysler at a time when the company appeared to be on the verge of going out of business and had just sold its loss-makingChrysler Europe division toPeugeot in an effort to generate cash because the company was losing millions already in North America.[12] This was partially due to recalls of itsDodge Aspen andPlymouth Volare, both of which, Iacocca later said, were among the causes for Chrysler's woes and customer dissatisfaction.[13][14] Iacocca joined Chrysler and began rebuilding the entire company from the ground up and bringing in many former associates from Ford.
Also from Ford, Iacocca brought to Chrysler the "Mini-Max" project, which, in 1983, bore fruit in the highly successfulDodge Caravan andPlymouth Voyager. Henry Ford II had wanted nothing to do with the Mini-Max, a restyled version of the minivan, whichToyota was selling in huge numbers in Asia and Latin America, and his opinion doomed the project at Ford. Hal Sperlich, the driving force behind the Mini-Max at Ford, had been fired a few months before Iacocca. He had been hired by Chrysler, where the two would make automotive history together.
Iacocca arrived shortly after Chrysler's introduction of the subcompactDodge Omni andPlymouth Horizon. Bearing a strong resemblance to theVolkswagenRabbit, the front-wheel-drive Omni and Horizon became instant hits, selling over 300,000 units each in their debut year, showing what was to come for Chrysler. The Omni was a derivative of Chrysler Europe'sChrysler Horizon, one of the first deliberately designed "World Cars", which resulted in the American and European cars looking nearly identical externally. However, underneath remarkably similar-looking sheetmetal, engines, transmissions, suspensions, bumpers, and interior design were quite different. Initially the U.S. cars even usedVW-based engines (while the European models usedSimca engines), as American Chrysler did not have an engine of an appropriate size for the Omni until the 2.2L engine from the Chrysler K-Car became available. Ironically, some later year base model U.S. Omnis used a FrenchPeugeot-based 1.6L engine.
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Realizing that the company would go out of business if it did not receive a large infusion of cash, Chrysler approached theUnited States Congress in 1979 and requested aloan guarantee. Chairman and CEOJohn J. Riccardo resigned on September 17, 1979, because he believed that the company would be more likely to receive government aid under new management.[15] His retirement took effect three days later and he was succeeded by Iacocca.[16] Iacocca was able to obtain the guarantee, but Chrysler was required to reduce costs and abandon some longstanding projects, such as theturbine engine, which had been ready for consumer production in 1979 after nearly 20 years of development.
Chrysler released the first of theK-Car line, theDodge Aries andPlymouth Reliant, in 1981. Similar to the later minivan, these compact automobiles were based on design proposals that Ford had rejected during Iacocca's (and Sperlich's) tenure. Released in the middle of the major 1980–1982 recession, the small, efficient, and inexpensivefront-wheel drive cars sold rapidly. In addition, Iacocca re-introduced the bigImperial as the company's flagship. The new model had all of the newest technologies of the time, including fully electronic fuel injection and all-digital dashboard.
Chrysler introduced the minivan, considered Sperlich's "baby", in late 1983. It led the automobile industry in sales for 25 years.[17] Because of the K-cars and minivans, along with the reforms Iacocca implemented, the company turned around quickly and was able to repay thegovernment-backed loans seven years earlier than expected.
Iacocca led Chrysler's acquisition ofAMC in 1987, which brought the profitableJeep division under the corporate umbrella. It created the short-livedEagle division. By this time, AMC had already finished most of the work on theJeep Grand Cherokee, which Iacocca wanted. The Grand Cherokee would not be released until 1992 for the 1993 model year, the same year that Iacocca retired.
Throughout the 1980s, Iacocca, with the help of his longtime friend and advertisement executive,Leo-Arthur Kelmenson, appeared in a series of commercials developed byKenyon & Eckhardt for the company's vehicles, employing the ad campaign, "The pride is back," to denote the turnaround of the corporation.[18] He also voiced what was to become his trademark phrase: "If you can find a better car, buy it."[19]
Iacocca retired as president, CEO, and chairman of Chrysler at the end of 1992.[20]
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In 1995, Iacocca helped billionaireKirk Kerkorian attempt ahostile takeover of Chrysler, which was ultimately unsuccessful. The next year, Kerkorian and Chrysler made a five-year agreement which included a gag order preventing Iacocca from speaking publicly about Chrysler.[21]
In July 2005, Iacocca returned to the airwaves as Chrysler's pitchman,[1] along with celebrities such asJason Alexander andSnoop Dogg, to promote Chrysler's "Employee Pricing Plus" program; the ads reprise the "If you can find a better car, buy it" line, Iacocca's trademark of the 1980s.[19] In return for his services, Iacocca andDaimlerChrysler agreed that his fees, plus a $1 donation per vehicle sold from July 1 through December 31, 2005, would be given to the Iacocca Foundation fortype 1 diabetes research.
In an April 2009Newsweek interview, Iacocca reflected on his time spent at Chrysler and the company's current situation. He said:[22]
This is a sad day for me. It pains me to see my old company, which has meant so much to America, on the ropes. But Chrysler has been in trouble before, and we got through it, and I believe they can do it again. If they're smart, they'll bring together a consortium of workers, plant managers and dealers to come up with real solutions. These are the folks on the front lines, and they're the key to survival. Let's face it, if your car breaks down, you're not going to take it to the White House to get fixed. But, if your company breaks down, you've got to go to the experts on the ground, not the bureaucrats. Every day I talk to dealers and managers, who are passionate and full of ideas. No one wants Chrysler to survive more than they do. So I'd say to theObama administration, don't leave them out. Put their passion and ideas to work.
Because of the Chrysler bankruptcy, Iacocca lost part of his pension from a supplemental executive retirement plan, and a guaranteed company car during his lifetime. The losses occurred after the bankruptcy court approved the sale of Chrysler toChrysler Group LLC, with ownership of the new company by theUnited Auto Workers, the Italian carmakerFiat and the governments of the United States and Canada.[23]
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 Presentation by Iacocca onWhere Have All the Leaders Gone?, April 23, 2007,C-SPAN |
In 1984, Iacocca co-wrote an autobiography withWilliam Novak:Iacocca: An Autobiography. It was the best selling non-fiction hardback book of 1984 and 1985.[2] The book used heavy discounting, which would become a trend among publishers in the 1980s.[24] Iacocca donated the proceeds of the book's sales totype 1 diabetes research.
In 1988, with Sonny Kleinfeld, Iacocca co-authoredTalking Straight,[25] a book meant as a counterbalance toAkio Morita'sMade in Japan, a non-fiction book praising Japan's post-war hard-working culture.Talking Straight praised the innovation and creativity of Americans.[26]
On April 17, 2007,Simon & Schuster published Iacocca's book,Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, co-written with Catherine Whitney.[27][28]
Iacocca partnered with producerPierre Cossette to bring a production ofThe Will Rogers Follies toBranson, Missouri, in 1994. He also invested in Branson Hills, a 1,400-acre housing development.[29]
In 1993, he had joined the board ofMGM Grand, led by his friendKirk Kerkorian.[30] He started amerchant bank to fund ventures in thegaming industry, which he called "the fastest-growing business in the world".[31] In 1995, he sold his interests in severalIndian gaming projects toFull House Resorts, a casino operator led by his friendAllen Paulson, becoming a major shareholder and later a member of the board of directors.[32]
Iacocca founded Olivio Premium Products in 1993. Olivio's signature product was anolive oil-basedmargarine product. Iacocca appeared in commercials for Olivio.[33]
Iacocca joined the board of restaurant chainKoo Koo Roo in 1995.[34] In 1998, he stepped up to serve as acting chairman of the troubled company, and led it through a merger with Family Restaurants (owner ofChi-Chi's andEl Torito). He sat on the board of the merged company until stepping down in 1999.[35]
In 1997, Iacocca founded Iacocca, a company formed to develop and market electric bikes with a top speed of 15 mph and a range of 20 miles between recharging at wall outlets.[36] They produced E-Bike SX, which became the first widely popular electric bicycle in the US.[37] In 1999, Iacocca became the head of EV Global Motors.[38]
In May 1982, PresidentRonald Reagan appointed Iacocca to head theStatue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, which was created to raise funds for therestoration of theStatue of Liberty and the renovation ofEllis Island.[39] Iacocca continued to serve on the board of the foundation until his death.
Following the death of Iacocca's wife Mary fromtype 1 diabetes, he became an active supporter of research for the disease. He was one of the main patrons of the research ofDenise Faustman atMassachusetts General Hospital. In 2000, Iacocca founded Olivio Premium Products, which manufactures the Olivio line of food products made fromolive oil. He donated all profits from the company to type 1 diabetes research. In 2004, Iacocca launched Join Lee Now,[40] a nationalgrassroots campaign, to bring Faustman's research to human clinical trials in 2006.
Iacocca was an advocate of "Nourish the Children", an initiative ofNu Skin Enterprises,[41] since its inception in 2002, and served as its chairman. He helped donate a generator for theMalawi VitaMeal plant.
Iacocca led the fundraising campaign to enableLehigh University inBethlehem, Pennsylvania, to adapt and use vacant buildings formerly owned byBethlehem Steel, includingIacocca Hall on the Mountaintop Campus at the university. These structures currently house the College of Education, the biology and chemical engineering departments, and The Iacocca Institute, which is focused on global competitiveness.
Iacocca played Park Commissioner Lido in "Sons and Lovers", the 44th episode ofMiami Vice, which premiered on May 9, 1986.[42] The name of the character is his birth name, which was not used in the public sphere due to the trouble of mispronunciation or misspelling.
Iacocca married Mary McCleary on September 29, 1956. They had two daughters. Iacocca's wife died fromtype 1 diabetes on May 15, 1983. Before her death, Iacocca became a strong advocate for better medical treatment of type 1 diabetes patients, who frequently faced debilitating and fatal complications, and he continued this work after her death.
Iacocca's second marriage was to Peggy Johnson. They married on April 17, 1986, but in 1987, after nineteen months, Iacocca had the marriage annulled. He married for the third time in 1991 to Darrien Earle. They were divorced three years later.
Iacocca resided in theBel Air section ofLos Angeles in his later years.[43]
On July 2, 2019, Iacocca died at his home inBel Air, at the age of 94,[44] from complications ofParkinson's disease.[45][46]
His funeral mass was held on July 10, 2019, at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic Church and he was buried atWhite Chapel Memorial Cemetery inTroy, Michigan.[47][48]
In his 2007 book,Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, Iacocca described how he consideredrunning for president in 1988 and was in the planning stages of a campaign with the slogan "I Like I", before ultimately being talked out of it by his friendTip O'Neill.[2]
Pennsylvania GovernorBob Casey discussed with Iacocca an appointment to theU.S. Senate in 1991 after the death of SenatorJohn Heinz, but Iacocca declined.
Politically, Iacoccasupported theRepublican Party candidateGeorge W. Bush in the2000 U.S. presidential election. In the2004 U.S. presidential election, heendorsed Bush'sDemocratic Party opponent,John Kerry.[49] In the2006 Michigan gubernatorial election, Iacocca appeared in televised political ads endorsing Republican candidateDick DeVos,[50] who lost. Iacoccaendorsed New Mexico governorBill Richardson for President in the2008 U.S. presidential election. In the2012 U.S. presidential election, heendorsedMitt Romney for president.[51]
On December 3, 2007, Iacocca launched a website to encourage open dialogue about the challenges of contemporary society. He introduced topics such as health care costs, and the United States' lag in developing alternative energy sources and hybrid vehicles. The site also promotes his bookWhere Have All the Leaders Gone. It provides an interactive means for users to rate presidential candidates by the qualities Iacocca believes they should possess: curiosity, creativity, communication, character, courage, conviction, charisma, competence and common sense.
The high amount of publicity that Iacocca received during his turnaround of Chrysler made him a celebrity and gave him a lasting impact in popular culture. In addition to his acting role inMiami Vice, Iacocca also made appearances onGood Morning America,Late Night With David Letterman and the 1985Bob Hope TV specialBob Hope Buys NBC?[52] while concurrently it was common to see depictions of elderly, bespectacled businessmen with charismatic, salesman-like personas, such as in an ad campaign by theRainier Brewing Company.[53] Iacocca's success serving as Chrysler's pitchman influenced other companies to feature executives in their marketing, such as how fast food chainWendy's has successfully utilized company founderDave Thomas as a corporatemascot since the early 1990s. Iacocca's image was also invoked by rival automakerFord in the marketing campaign for the 1993Mercury Villagerminivan, which depicted a competing car company led by an unhappy boss with a physical resemblance to Iacocca viewing the Villager withconsternation because it is outselling their minivan.[54] Fictional businessmen and middle managers, such asMichael Scott onThe Office, have been shown reading Iacocca's books and attempting to emulate his methods. In a manner similar toRonald Reagan, period pieces produced in subsequent decades have used images of Iacocca and the Chrysler K-car to invoke the 1980s. The 2009 filmWatchmen, which is set in analternative history 1985, took this in a unique direction by showing Iacocca (portrayed by Walter Addison) being assassinated by the film's antagonists, which has been said to have angered Iacocca when he learned about it.[55]In Ordinary People, a song fromNeil Young released inChrome Dreams II andBluenote Café, Lee Iacocca is quoted in the lyrics as a notable representative of the capitalistic world.
Iacocca, portrayed byJon Bernthal, is a major character in the 2019 filmFord v Ferrari, which is a dramatization of the 1960sFord GT40 program. The film was released shortly after Iacocca's death.
Tom Paxton wrote a song about the bailouts called "I Am Changing My Name To Chrysler," which mentions Iacocca prominently in the chorus. It was critical of the bailout for serving corporate interests ahead of supposed good business or capitalist principles.
He was also portrayed byPhil Hartman onSaturday Night Live.[56]
He is also referenced in The Arrogant Worms' ode to a Chrysler vehicle, "Horizon."
In 1985, Iacocca received the S. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually byJefferson Awards.[57]
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| Preceded by | President of theFord Motor Company December 10, 1970–July 13, 1978 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | President of theChrysler Corporation November 2, 1978–January 14, 1991 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Chairman and CEO of theChrysler Corporation September 20, 1979–December 31, 1992 | Succeeded by |
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