Sunday 18th August 1940

Walter P. Chrysler (65), the American car manufacturing tycoon, died. He began his love affair with mechanical engineering as an apprentice in a railroad machine shop. He became President of the Buick Motor Company and in 1919 resigned from General Motors to take control of the Maxwell Motor Company, which became the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. The new company, featuring a car that Chrysler designed, was soon a success. Today, the Chrysler Company owns Dodge and Plymouth, and is one of the “Big Three” in the American car industry.