Roy D. Chapin

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Roy D. Chapin

Roy Dikeman Chapin (born February 23, 1880 in Lansing , Michigan , † February 10, 1936 in Detroit , Michigan) was an American entrepreneur in the automotive industry and politician of the Republican Party , who served in the cabinet of President Herbert Hoover as Secretary of Commerce ( Secretary of Commerce ).

Early years and auto industry

Roy Chapin studied at the University of Michigan, which he left without a degree in 1901 to take a position as test driver and in sales at Olds Motor Works , which started regular production of the Oldsmobile Curved Dash that year . He made a first time nationwide attention to himself when he with such a lightweight car in the fall of 1901 by Detroit ( Michigan ) for the motor show to New York drove. The journey lasted a week and led over impassable, muddy roads. The event was heavily exploited by him for the Oldsmobile advertising, but also led to his strong commitment to better roads in the US. In 1906 he left the company with the Oldsmobile engineer Howard E. Coffin to build their own automobile. With financial support from ER Thomas, the manufacturer of the Thomas car, they founded the ER Thomas-Detroit Company in Detroit , which produced the Forty model, a vehicle in the upper price segment. The finished cars were for exclusive distribution by Thomas to Buffalo ( New York sent). This complicated arrangement and the control by Thomas displeased Chapin and Coffin so that they looked for another investor and found Hugh Chalmers . The Forty was technically unchanged as Model E of the new Chalmers-Detroit brand (again as Forty after 1909 ) and offered as the more expensive of two series. Chapin and Coffin had nothing more to do with that: When they failed to convince Chalmers of a cheaper model at a retail price of less than US $ 1,000, they left Chalmers-Detroit in 1908.

The Hudson Motor Car Company

Hudson Model 20 as a Roadster (1910) designed by Howard E. Coffin

A consortium of business people and engineers, headed by Chapin and which, apart from him, essentially consisted of Coffin and the former Oldsmobile people George W. Dunham and Roscoe B. Jackson , planned to set up their own car company. The capital for this, 90% of the required funds of US $ 100,000, flowed rather reluctantly from the uncle of Jackson's wife, the owner of the largest department store in Detroit, Joseph Lowthian Hudson . According to him, the new company were Hudson Motor Car Company and the car consequently Hudson called. Roy D. Chapin became the first president of the new company, Coffin's design came out as the Hudson Model 20 and was a great success.

In 1914, Chapin married Inez Tiedeman , with whom he had six children.

Route map of the Lincoln Highway

After he was instrumental in founding the Lincoln Highway Association as early as 1913 , he continued to play a leading role in the construction of the Lincoln Highway , the first road in the USA to connect the east and west coasts . He saw the modern highways as a way to ensure the unity of the United States as a nation in the long run. Also why Roy Chapin was, in addition to his business activities, as Chairman of the Appeals Highway Transportation Committee of the National Defense Council of the United States ( Council of National Defense followed), a position he during the First World War stopped.

Essex Four Series A 4-door Sedan priced at US $ 2,250 (1919). In 1922 a closed two-door car still cost US $ 1,245.

After the peace treaty, Chapin was also instrumental in founding the Essex Motor Company in 1917, a Hudson corporate brand which was to build passenger cars below the mid-range Hudson and commercial vehicles . The company initially operated independently from Hudson, but there was a strong interdependence of the management. So was William S. McAneeny not only president of the company, but also the Hudson plant manager. Roscoe Jackson and AE Barit von Hudson were in charge of administrative duties at Essex and Chapin was on the Essex board of directors with other Hudson executives. Essex wrote automotive history when, in 1922, the Four Coach (two-door sedan) model was the first mass-produced vehicle with a fixed roof at an unrivaled low price (US $ 1,245 versus US $ 1,045 for a touring, an open five-seater with four doors and an emergency roof) offered. The car became such a success that the American auto industry began producing vehicles of this type, having previously focused on open cars. GM President Alfred P. Sloan commented on this as “ an event which was to profoundly influence the fortunes of Pontiac, Chevrolet, and the Model T. ” (German: “Event which fundamentally influenced the future of Pontiac, Chevrolet and the Ford Model T . ”) As early as 1925, the two-door sedan cost five dollars less than the Touring. Chapin secured the future of Hudson through a restructuring in 1922, which resulted in Hudson and Essex being merged into a single company whose shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange. As a brand, Essex remained on the market until 1932 when it was replaced by the Terraplane. In 1923, Chapin handed over the presidency of the Hudson Motor Company to Roscoe Jackson and became chairman of the board.

Political career

After making Hudson one of the most profitable independent auto companies in the United States, Chapin left the company and joined President Hoover's cabinet as Secretary of Commerce . He took up this post on August 8, 1932 and in the remainder of his tenure tried to convince Henry Ford to provide financial aid to the Guardian Trust Company in Detroit. However, Ford refused to save the bank from financial collapse. This led to the Michigan Bank Holiday , which anticipated the 1933 National Bank Holiday .

After Hover's failed re-election attempt, Chapin resigned from the US government on March 3, 1933 and returned to Hudson. There he tried to contain the effects of the Great Depression on the company. He died in Detroit in 1936.

In 1954 the Hudson Motor Car Company was merged with the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form the American Motors Corporation (AMC). Chapin's son Roy Jr. , who had also previously made a career at Hudson, served as AMC's first chairman and CEO .

In 1972 Roy D. Chapin, sr. inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame , his son Roy D. Chapin, Jr. 1984.

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 2nd edition, Krause Publications, Iola WI 1985, ISBN 0-87341-111-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bentley Historical Library, RD Chapin Papers (English).
  2. ↑ a b c Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 1017.
  3. ↑ a b c Automotive Hall of Fame via Roy D. Chapin, sr. (English)
  4. ↑ a b c d Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 1420.
  5. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 1417.
  6. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 257.
  7. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, pp. 257-258.
  8. ↑ a b c Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 690.
  9. ↑ a b Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 517.
  10. ↑ a b c Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 519.
  11. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, pp. 517-518.
  12. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark, Jr. (Ed.): The Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942. 1985, p. 1409.
  13. ↑ Automotive Hall of Fame via Roy D. Chapin, jr. (English).
personal data
SURNAME Chapin, Roy D.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chapin, Roy Dikeman (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American entrepreneur and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Lansing , Michigan
DATE OF DEATH February 10, 1936
Place of death Detroit , Michigan