System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!John Zachary DeLorean, Innovative Car Maker
January 06, 1925 - March 19, 2005
John Zachary DeLorean, innovative car maker, died late Saturday March 19, 2005 at Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey due to complications from a recent stroke.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, DeLorean was the eldest of four sons of a Ford Motor Company foundry worker. He grew up both in Detroit and Los Angeles where he played saxophone in a jazz band and won a music scholarship to the Lawrence Institute of Technology in Detroit. He later switched to engineering and was hired by Chrysler upon his graduation in 1948. He later went on to earn advanced degrees in both engineering and business administration.
DeLorean joined GM in 1956 as an engineering director for Pontiac at the age of 31. By the time he was 40, DeLorean led Pontiac and, four years later, he became the youngest head of GM's impressive Chevrolet division. It was DeLorean who created the first "muscle car" in 1964 when he installed a V-8 engine into a Pontiac Tempest and called it the GTO. Later on he went on to shift the industry's focus toward smaller and more efficient cars.
DeLorean was a GM vice president in charge of all the North American car and truck operations when he quit in 1973 to launch his own company - The DeLorean Motor Car Co. In Northern Ireland. He developed, the now famous, gull-winged sports car that was featured as a time travel machine in the Michael J. Fox, Back To The Future movies.
DeLorean is survived by his wife, Sally DeLorean; son Zachary and daughters Kathryn and Sheila as well by three brothers, several nieces and nephews and two grandchildren.
