32 Facts About Walter Chrysler

Walter Percy Chrysler was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, American automotive industry executive and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler Corporation.

Walter Chrysler grew up in Ellis, Kansas, where today his boyhood home is a museum.

Walter Chrysler's father was born in Chatham, Ontario, in 1850 and immigrated to the United States after 1858.

Walter Chrysler took correspondence courses from International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania, earning a mechanical degree from the correspondence program.

Walter Chrysler's father, Henry Chrysler, was a Canadian-American of German and Dutch ancestry.

Walter Chrysler was an American Civil War veteran who was a locomotive engineer for the Kansas Pacific Railway and its successor, the Union Pacific Railroad.

Walter Chrysler's mother was born in Rocheport, Missouri, and was of German ancestry.

Walter Chrysler's forebears had founded Chatham; the family stock was German; eight generations back of me there had come to America one who spelled his name Greisler, a German Palatine.

Walter Chrysler was one of a group of Protestants who had left their German homeland in the Rhine Valley, gone to the Netherlands, thence to England and embarked, finally, from Plymouth for New York.

Walter Chrysler apprenticed in the railroad shops at Ellis as a machinist and railroad mechanic.

Walter Chrysler then spent a period of years roaming the west, working for various railroads as a roundhouse mechanic with a reputation of being good at valve-setting jobs.

Walter Chrysler moved frequently, first to Wellington, Kansas, in 1897, then to Denver, Colorado for two weeks, and finally Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Walter Chrysler worked his way up through positions such as foreman in Trinidad, Colorado, superintendent, division master mechanic, and general master mechanic.

From 1905 to 1906, Walter Chrysler worked for the Fort Worth and Denver Railway in Childress in West Texas.

Walter Chrysler later lived and worked in Oelwein, Iowa, at the main shops of the Chicago Great Western where there is a small park dedicated to him.

Walter Chrysler had been an auto enthusiast for over five years by then, and was very interested.

Walter Chrysler, who had resigned from many railroading jobs over the years, made his final resignation from railroading to become works manager at Buick in Flint, Michigan.

Walter Chrysler found many ways to reduce the costs of production, such as putting an end to finishing automobile undercarriages with the same luxurious quality of finish that the body warranted.

Walter Chrysler, who was closely tied to the bankers, submitted his resignation to Durant, then based in New York City.

Apparently in shock, Walter Chrysler asked Durant to repeat the offer, which he did.

Walter Chrysler did not agree with Durant's vision for the future of General Motors.

Walter Chrysler had started at Buick in 1911 for US$6,000 a year, and left one of the richest men in the United States.

Walter Chrysler was then hired to attempt a turnaround by bankers who foresaw the loss of their investment in Willys-Overland Motor Company in Toledo, Ohio.

Walter Chrysler demanded, and received, a salary of US$1 million a year for two years, an astonishing amount at that time.

When Walter Chrysler left Willys in 1921 after an unsuccessful attempt to wrestle control from John Willys, he acquired a controlling interest in the ailing Maxwell Motor Company.

Walter Chrysler phased out Maxwell and absorbed it into his new firm, the Walter Chrysler Corporation, in Detroit, Michigan, in 1925.

Walter Chrysler was named Time magazine's Man of the Year for 1928.

Walter Chrysler was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1967.

In 1923, Walter Chrysler purchased from Henri Willis Bendel a twelve-acre waterfront estate at Kings Point on Long Island, New York, and renamed it 'Forker House'.

Walter Chrysler built a country estate in Warrenton, Virginia, in what is referred to as the Virginia horse country and home to the Warrenton Hunt.

Walter Chrysler turned 61 in the spring of 1936 and stepped down from an active role in the day-to-day business of the company.

Walter Chrysler was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.