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N0KFQ > TODAY 20.03.17 14:11l 59 Lines 2676 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
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Subj: Today in History - Mar 20
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Sent: 170320/1207Z 26866@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1928
Auto pioneer James Packard dies
James Packard, co-founder of the Packard Motor Company, a
pioneering American automaker, dies at the age of 64 on this day
in 1928. During Packard's heyday in the 1930s, its vehicles were
driven by movie stars and business titans.
Packard was born in Warren, Ohio, on November 5, 1863, and
graduated from Lehigh University in 1884 with a mechanical
engineering degree. In 1890, Packard and his older brother
William (1861-1923) founded the Packard Electric Company in their
hometown and manufactured electric light bulbs and other
electrical equipment. In 1899, the Packards built their first
vehicle, a single-cylinder, single-seat roadster. In 1903, the
Packard Motor Car Company moved its operations from Ohio to a 3.5
million-square-foot plant in Detroit, Michigan. James Packard
served as the company's president until 1909 and was chairman of
the board until 1915. By the mid-1920s, his initial investment of
several thousand dollars in the company was reportedly worth
millions and the Packard brand had come to represent quality and
style. In March 1921, Warren G. Harding, reportedly the first
U.S. president who knew how to drive before taking office, became
the first commander-in-chief ever to ride to his inauguration in
an automobile - a Packard Twin Six.
In 1937, next to the Ford Motor Company, Packard was considered
by Fortune magazine "the most valuable name in the auto
industry," according to "Packard: The Pride" by J.M. Fenster.
Fortune wrote of Packard: "For a generation its luxurious cars
had never carried lesser folk than rich invalids to their
airings, diplomats to embassies, gangsters to funerals, stars to
the studios, war lords through Chinese dust, heroes through
ticker tape, heiresses across Long Island and Grosse Pointe."
Among the luminaries who owned Packards was W.F.R. Murie, head of
the Hershey Chocolate Company, who purchased 45 new Packards in
35 years and even had one painted to match the color of a
chocolate bar.
During World War II, Packard made airplane and boat engines for
the U.S. military. In 1954, the company merged with fellow
automaker Studebaker to form the Studebaker-Packard Corporation.
However, the company struggled financially and in 1956, the
Packard plants were shuttered. (Studebaker would remain in
business for another decade, before closing its operations in
1966.) In the mid-1990s, two American entrepreneurs purchased the
rights to the Packard name and attempted, unsuccessfully, to
revive the brand with a new luxury sedan.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Winlink: n0kfq@winlink.org
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