John De Lorean

John Zachary De Lorean (January 6, 1925 – March 19, 2005) was an American personality, engineer, and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, and founder of the De Lorean Motor Company. He was most well known for developing the Pontiac GTO muscle car, and the De Lorean DMC-12 sports car, which was later featured in the movie Back to the Future.

Education

John attended Detroit's public grade schools, and was then accepted into Cass Tech, a technical High School for Detroit's honor students. There he signed up for the electrical curriculum. The young DeLorean found the Cass experience to be exhilarating, and excelled at his studies. His chemistry teacher was Evangeline Lodge Land, mother of eminent pilot Charles Lindbergh.

Related Topics:
Cass Tech - Charles Lindbergh

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DeLorean?s excellent academic record combined with his talents in music netted him a scholarship at Lawrence Institute of Technology (now known as Lawrence Technological University), a small but illustrious Detroit college that was alma mater of some of the area's best draftsmen and designers. There again he excelled in the study of industrial engineering, and was elected to the school's Honor Society. WWII was to interrupt his academics.

Related Topics:
Lawrence Institute of Technology - Lawrence Technological University - Industrial engineering - WWII

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In 1943, DeLorean was drafted for military service and served three years in the U.S. Army before being honorably discharged, when he returned to Detroit to find his mother and siblings in economic difficulty due to the strains of Kathryn?s single income. John went to work for the Public Lighting Commission for a year and a half in order to put his family on firmer financial ground before resuming at Lawrence to finish his degree.

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His 1947 return to college saw his candidacy for Student Council President end in defeat, but he was quick to print a witty self-deprecating concession in the school paper, for which he was a popular contributor. These final years at Lawrence were also DeLorean's prologue to his contributions in the automotive world, when he worked part-time at Chrysler and a local body shop. In 1948, DeLorean graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering.

Related Topics:
Chrysler - Bachelor of Science - Degree - Mechanical engineering

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Instead of entering the engineering workforce after earning his degree, DeLorean worked a stint as a salesman of life insurance, and for the Factory Equipment Corporation. Both of these endeavors proved a success financially, but John?s maternal uncle Earl Pribak, a foreman at Chrysler's engineering garage, recommended that he attend the Chrysler Institute, and John concurred. The car manufacturer ran a post-graduate facility that would allow him to advance his degree while concurrently being allowed exposure to real-world engineering in action.

Related Topics:
Life insurance - Post-graduate

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In 1952, DeLorean graduated the institute with a masters degree in automotive engineering, and signed on to Chrysler's engineering team. During this time, John also took on night classes at the University of Michigan to earn credits toward his MBA.

Related Topics:
Automotive engineering - University of Michigan

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