Walter P. Chrysler

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Summary

WP Chrysler was a native of Kansas, and cut his teeth on railroading. He was the son of an engineer on the Kansas and Pacific Railroad, and was always fascinated by machinery. As a young man, he built his own working railroad model, machining his own tools in the process. When he was 17, he signed on at the Union Pacific shops as an apprentice, for a nickel an hour. Mechanical engineering became young Walt Chrysler's life, not his profession.

After he got his journeyman's certificate, he took a job in the Rio Grande & Western roundhouse in Salt Lake City. He got married and began studying with the International Correspondence School. He steadily moved up through the industry.

After a bit of time, the superintendent of motive power of the whole Chicago & Great Western system was a new man named Chrysler. "W.P." they called him. During his Great Western period Mr. Chrysler lived in Oelwein, Iowa. His mechanical curiosity was piqued by the new ‘horseless carriages’ he’d see traversing the town streets.

He went to the 1905 Chicago automobile show, where he saw a beautiful auto that he had to have. It was called a ‘Locomobile’. The price was $5,000 cash. Chrysler had only $700 in the bank, but that did not hold him back. He borrowed $4,300 and shipped it home. He spent months with his first car, tearing it down and reassembling it several times before he even learned to drive it! Chrysler decided that when the time was right, he would need to improve these things.

At 33, machinist/manager WP joined on with the American Locomotive Company, where he swiftly rose through the ranks. He was assigned to the position of Assistant Works Manager at the sprawling ALCO Pittsburgh plant, which he quickly transformed into a moneymaker. It was in this position that WP was first noticed by one of the directors of ALCO, James J. Storrow, who would soon the president of General Motors.

James Storrow, the president of GM, remembered the young Chrysler, and introduced him to Charlie Nash, then the president of Buick. After touring the Buick works, Nash could offer WP only $6000 a year, half of WP’s $12000 a year ALCO salary. Chrysler did not even hesitate! He immediately accepted the Buick position.

It was 1911, and Walter P. Chrysler was in the automobile business!

Over the next few years, WP built Buick into a power to be reckoned with, with Nash at the helm. In 1916, however, William Crapo Durant used the power of his upstart Chevrolet Company to leverage the presidency of General Motors. Nash would not be welcome under Durant, and Nash and Chrysler were a team.

Nash purchased another auto manufacturer, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and created the Nash Motors Company, which would later become American Motors. It was assumed that Chrysler would join him at the helm of this new company.

Durant had other ideas, however. He offered WP a salary of $10,000 a month, plus a yearly bonus of half-a-million dollars, in either GM stock or cash. Chrysler accepted, on the condition that he be allowed to run Buick with no interference from other GM companies. WP was now the president of Buick Motors, a job he would hold until 1919, when friction between Chrysler and Durant would come to a head. By 1919, WP had earned $ 10 million worth of GM stock, which he surrendered to GM for cash. Chrysler would eventually use this money to seed his own automobile company.

The only thing WP Chrysler lacked at this time was experience in automotive finance. He signed on at the Willys-Overland Company, overhauling the company from ‘hub-caps to stockholders’. During the same time period, he did the same thing at Maxwell Motors. After he arranged a merger between Maxwell and Chalmers, he felt he had the needed experience.

In 1924, he began selling his Chrysler automobiles. Within the Maxwell Motors framework, he established two lines, Chrysler, making the Model 65 and 75 and Imperial, the Model 80. Still, by 1927, the bankers that controlled Maxwell-Chalmers at the time were not comfortable with the ideas that WP had for his cars. To end their meddling, Chrysler bought the Maxwell concern outright. Thus was born the Chrysler Corporation.

In early July of 1928, Walter P. Chrysler offered the public a new automobile called the Plymouth. At the end of that same month, Dodge Bros. turned over their business to the Chrysler Corp. The Dodge Company included Graham Bros., a large truck company. Almost incidentally, he brought out a new line of commercial cars--the Fargo "Packets" and "Clippers”.

Early in autumn of 1928 came the news that Walter P. Chrysler was going to build the world's tallest skyscraper, a 68-story colossus towering more than 800 feet above Manhattan. When it opened to the public on May 27, 1930, at 405 Lexington Avenue, the Chrysler Building was the tallest building in the world. This only lasted for several months until the Empire State Building was completed

During the Great Depression of the 30’s, while many other companies would fail and disappear forever, the Chrysler Corporation would not only survive, but thrive. Chrysler did this by dropping the prices of his cars, selling them at for only a small profit. He also had maintained the research and development that made Chrysler products famous during these lean times.

Personal Data

• Full Name: Walter Percy Chrysler
• DOB: April 2, 1875
• Place of Birth: Wamego, Kansas
• DOD: August 18, 1940
• Place Interned:
• Spouse:
• Children:

Epilogue

Chrysler would stay on as president of the company he founded until 1935, when he turned over the reins to K.T. Keller, an able machinist and manager that Mr. Chrysler worked with during his years at Buick.

Mr. Chrysler would remain the Chairman of the Board of Directors, as he had since 1925, until his death on August 18, 1940.

The automotive world had lost a one of its greatest personalities, but the company founded by Walter P. Chrysler would continue to grow and thrive for many years.