Not everyone gets to be king.
Semon 'Bunkie' Knudsen was born to be king - and yet that glory eluded him.
He might have been president of General Motors, but he didn't quite make it. He might have led Ford Motor Co. to new heights in the 1960s and 1970s, but he was thwarted by office politics and was fired by Henry Ford II after 19 months on the job.
He set out to modernize the country's heavy-duty truck industry at White Motor Corp., only to be frustrated by White's financial morass that left him without even a pension.
'He had dreams and vision,' recalled auto industry maverick John DeLorean, after Knudsen's death in Royal Oak, Mich., last week at the age of 85. 'He inspired people. You'd stick your hand in fire for the guy.'
It was Knudsen who hired DeLorean as Pontiac assistant chief engineer in 1957.
Those were days of success and fulfillment for Knudsen. In just five years, he made Pontiac the design firebrand of GM. He saved the division from extinction and recast it as GM's performance brand. And in 1961, he moved on to Chevrolet where he created such classics as the Corvette Stingray, the Camaro and the Impala SS.
THE ANOINTED
GM patriarch Alfred P. Sloan Jr. once said that Bunkie Knudsen was 'born to be president of GM.' Bunkie's father - Danish immigrant William 'Big Bill' Knudsen - had also been president of GM. Bunkie was born into wealth and was groomed to play a role in the auto industry. When the younger Knudsen begged his father for a car at age 14, Big Bill gave him one - in pieces. Put it together, Big Bill told the boy, and there's your car. Bunkie did as instructed.
Big Bill served as GM's president from 1937 to 1940. Bunkie Knudsen arrived at GM in 1939 as the boss' son, complete with an engineering degree from MIT. But the pedigree earned him only a job in toolmaking. Ten years later, he was a master mechanic. In 1955, he was named general manager of GM's Detroit Diesel Engine Division.
The chance to run Pontiac in July 1956 was hardly a plum. The division's cars had become staid, and its future was uncertain. To break with the past, Knudsen ordered last-minute design changes on the 1957 models. Just days before production launch, he ordered that Pontiac's trademark 'Silver Streak' trim be removed from the hood, where it had been since 1935.
With Chief Engineer Pete Estes and DeLorean at his side, Knudsen put Pontiac on the 'wide track' in 1959. The cars were low, with wheels set apart to suggest a crouching animal. The changes triggered a sales spree. Pontiac was selling more than 500,000 cars a year by 1962 - and more than 800,000 a year by 1965.
Knudsen is also credited with launching the 'big-block' Chevy V-8 engine during his 1961-65 stint as general manager there. Under Knudsen, Chevy set sales records.
Knudsen had risen to executive vice president by 1967, and many GM insiders believed he would surely be GM's next president. But the job went to Ed Cole. Knudsen's dream of following in his father's footsteps was crushed.
DeLorean says he may have inadvertently brokered Knudsen's next move. DeLorean was taking his annual physical at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit as news of the GM decision buzzed. DeLorean's proctologist also counted Ford Chairman Henry Ford II as a patient.
THE MESSENGER
DeLorean says the physician mentioned to him, in passing, that Ford had tried to hire Cole as president, and that Ford had also failed to hire Knudsen. 'I told the doctor that Bunkie was so angry now that Ford could probably get him,' DeLorean says.
The next day, Ford visited Knudsen at his home and persuaded him to jump ship. Knudsen became president of Ford in February 1968.
It would not be a long stint. Knudsen was an obstacle in the path of Lee Iacocca. While Knudsen was turning out GTOs and Camaros, Iacocca was fathering the Mustang. In his later autobiography, Iacocca admitted that he was devastated when Knudsen was named president. Iacocca expected to get that job himself.
Knudsen didn't bring a gang of allies to Ford. He was alone at the top and was resented by many of those under him. When Ford fired Knudsen, the chairman said he was doing so because of 'complaints' from other Ford managers.
HEAVY-DUTY CHANGES
Knudsen switched to a brief career manufacturing motor homes. Then, in 1971, he became chairman of White Motor Corp., a maker of heavy-duty trucks and agricultural and construction vehicles.
White was failing. Knudsen's predecessors had embarked on a plan to begin manufacturing engines in-house. Knudsen deemed the move a mistake and - despite heavy investment in a large engine plant - canceled the project before it built a single engine.
Knudsen wanted to bring auto industry efficiencies to the heavy-duty field. He wanted to move away from the practice of virtually custom-building every order and to use GM-style mass-production techniques to cut costs and speed things up. He was frustrated by how slowly the company seemed able or willing to change.
Knudsen sold off some of White's operations. In 1975, the company posted a loss of $65 million. By early 1979, it had begun showing a profit again. He retired in 1980.
But by the early 1980s, White was in bankruptcy. In 1982, Knudsen was forced to sue to obtain his unpaid pension from the company.
