Eugene Gregorie, Automobile Designer -- Rest in Peace

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Subject: Eugene Gregorie, Automobile Designer

Author:
Florida

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Date Posted: December 04, 2002 3:02:49 EDT

Eugene T. Gregorie, the first design chief of the Ford Motor Company and the creator of the Lincoln Continental, died on Sunday in St. Augustine, Fla., where he lived. He was 94.

Mr. Gregorie, who was known as Bob, also designed what would become the 1949 Mercury, which was driven by James Dean in "Rebel Without a Cause," and the 1936 Lincoln Zephyr, which the Museum of Modern Art in New York called "the first successfully streamlined car in America."

After working for ship design companies in New York, Mr. Gregorie moved to Detroit in 1929 to work in the auto industry.

He was immediately hired by General Motors but lost his job a few months later at the start of the Depression.

Mr. Gregorie was 22 when he was hired in 1931 by Edsel B. Ford, president of Ford and son of the founder, Henry Ford.

"Gregorie's primary attribute was he could translate what Edsel Ford wanted into three-dimensional designs," said Jim Farrell, a lawyer in Roseburg, Ore., who has written extensively about the history of Ford's automotive designs. "He could sit and sketch while Edsel talked in his office."

In 1935, Edsel Ford made Mr. Gregorie the chief of Ford's new design department.

"The difference between Gregorie and every other chief designer is that he himself did all the design work, as opposed to his staff," said Henry L. Dominguez, a General Motors engineer and the author of "Edsel Ford & E. T. Gregorie."

His designs included the Lincoln Continental, which was introduced in 1939.

Ford announced earlier this year that it would stop making the Continental as part of a companywide restructuring.

Mr. Gregorie left the company soon after Edsel Ford's death in 1943. He returned in 1944 at the request of Henry Ford II, but left again two years later when he found himself frequently at odds with top management.

At 38, Mr. Gregorie moved to St. Augustine and turned to sailing and designing yachts.

Mr. Gregorie is survived by his wife, Evelyn, and three nieces.

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Re: Eugene Gregorie, Automobile Designer	jeannette alva gregorie ashmore jackson	December 11, 2002 1:16:14 EDT