FYI
Matt Murray
March 20, 2005
John DeLorean, Innovative Automaker, Dies at 80
By DANNY HAKIM
John DeLorean, the flamboyant automobile industrialist whose
dream of running his own car company dissolved into bankruptcy,
died Saturday evening at Overlook Hospital in Summit, N.J.. He
was 80 years old and lived in Bedminster, N.J.
The cause was complications following a stroke, his family said.
Mr. DeLorean, a Detroit native, was once thought to be a
contender for the presidency of General Motors but left the
world's largest automaker in 1973 and went on to start his own
company, DeLorean Motor Company, with the backing of investors
like Johnny Carson and Sammy Davis Jr.
DeLorean Motor produced only one model, the DMC-12, but it made a
lasting impression. In the early 1980's, with increasingly dull
cars coming from Detroit, the unpainted, stainless steel sports
car had doors that opened like a seagull's wings and was featured
in the "Back to the Future" movies starring Michael J. Fox.
Though the car remains an iconic collector's item, the life of
Mr. DeLorean's company was brief, with about 9,000 cars produced
at a factory in Northern Ireland before the company went bankrupt
in 1982 amid charges by authorities in the United States that Mr.
DeLorean was selling cocaine to prop up its finances. Mr.
DeLorean was acquitted in 1984 after a highly publicized trial.
Though he was never able to rekindle his automotive dream-for a
time he started a wrist watch company called DeLorean Time -he
also never let it go. His fourth wife, Sally, said in a brief
interview yesterday that he had designed a new sports car and
still hoped to start another automaker.
"He's been working on it for the last couple years," she said.
John Zachary DeLorean was born in Detroit on Jan. 6, 1925, the
oldest of four sons of a Ford Motor Company foundry worker.
Growing up in a working class neighborhood, he graduated from the
Lawrence Institute of Technology and went on to earn masters
degrees in both engineering and business.
He joined the small Packard Motor Car Company as an engineer in
1952. With ambition, insight and an eye for the unconventional
option that could succeed, he became a rising star, first at
Packard, and starting in 1956, within G.M., the world's largest
automaker. At 40, he became was the youngest general manager of
G.M.'s Pontiac division and four years later the youngest manager
of Chevrolet. In 1972, at 48, he became a G.M. vice president.
He was an anomaly in an industry then dominated by button-downed
executives. He dyed his hair jet-black, wore shirts open to the
navel, married a teenage starlet and subsequently a supermodel,
and became a wonder at self-promotion. He wore long sideburns
that violated the company's unwritten dress code and even had the
president of Ford as best man at his second marriage. He also
owned a tenth of the San Diego Chargers for a time and played the
jazz saxophone.
"He once told me that he placed enjoying life very high in his
list of priorities, and he felt that contrasted with many other
executives," said J. Patrick Wright, who collaborated with Mr.
DeLorean on a book called "On a Clear Day You Can See General
Motors."
His flair extended to business. He created Detroit's first muscle
car, the Pontiac GTO, the first of a wave of such vehicles. Many
in the industry felt he would someday be G.M.'s president, but he
left G.M. in 1973, citing opposition to his unorthodox business
style; others said he was dismissed. He told reporter at the
time, "There's no forward response at General Motors to what the
public wants today."
Mr. DeLorean became intent on creating a corporation in his
image.
"If we were super, super lucky and did everything right, we might
some day have another B.M.W.," Mr. DeLorean said in 1977.
He opened a factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, in early 1981,
which was to produce his $25,000 sports car, at a time when the
average vehicle cost about $10,000. The British Government sunk
$120 million into the $200 million project.
But with cars sales depressed in the United States, and with the
cars plagued by numerous quality problems, the company fell into
financial trouble and was the subject of a British Government
investigation into allegations of financial irregularities. The
inquiry found no evidence of criminal conduct, but on Oct. 19,
1982, the British government announced the factory would be
closed.
On the same day, in Los Angeles, Mr. DeLorean was arrested and
charged with conspiring to obtain and distribute 55 pounds of
cocaine. He was videotaped in an F.B.I. sting, declaring, "it's
better than gold" when presented with a case of cocaine by what
he thought were investors and who turned out to be government
agents.
His trial was seen as kicking off an era of celebrity cases. Mr.
DeLorean contended that he had been seeking a legitimate
investment for his factory when he was lured into a setup.
Accompanied by Christina Ferrare, the model who was his third
wife, Mr. DeLorean, his hair by then snow white, professed to
have found religion in jail. A jury in Los Angeles acquitted him
in August 1984.
Shortly thereafter, he faced another trial, in Detroit, on fraud
charges after a grand jury accused him of siphoning off, for his
own use, about $9 million investors had put into his auto
company-he was also acquitted in that trial.
Persistent legal troubles drained Mr. DeLorean's resources over
the years. By 2000, he sold off his sprawling estate in
Bedminster, N.J., which is now a golf club operated by Donald
Trump.
In addition to his wife, Mr. DeLorean is survived by two
daughters Kathryn Ann DeLorean, Sheila Baldwin DeLorean; a son,
Zachary Tavio DeLorean; three brothers: Charles (Chuck) Delorean,
Jack DeLorean and George DeLorean; and two grandchildren.
Though Mr. DeLorean's company long ago went bankrupt and stopped
producing cars, it lives on today, operated by a company in Texas
that bought all of the remaining DeLorean parts and repairs and
refurbishes cars for collectors.
"You can't discount the value of the Back to the Future movies,"
James Espey, the vice president of DeLorean Motor, said
yesterday.
"People who saw the cars in the movies in their teens, these are
people in their early, mid 30's, well established, and they now
can get the car they wanted when they were a kid."
Though Mr. DeLorean was not involved with the company, Mr. Espey
said he spoke to Mr. DeLorean once a month, including a
conversation Thursday morning shortly before he suffered a
stroke. Mr. Espey said Mr. DeLorean was concerned about the
increasing financial troubles of his former employer, General
Motors.
"He had said that there were too many bean counters and not
enough engineers in the management," said Mr. Espey. .
Mark DeLorean, Mr. DeLorean's nephew, said Mr. DeLorean was
concerned that domestic automakers were relying too much on
rebates to sell cars that were not much to look at.
"John's attitude was always, I want people's eyes to light up
when they walk through the showroom," Mr. DeLorean said.
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company
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