Edward Nicholas Cole (September 17, 1909 – May 2, 1977) was an American inventor, automotive engineer and executive, widely known for leading critical projects for General Motors, including development of the Chevrolet Corvair and Chevrolet Vega; developing GM's Small Block V8 and its rotary engine, championing the catalytic converter to migrate cars from leaded gasoline, and advocating for air bags. He was President of General Motors from 1967 through 1974.
Ed Cole | |
|---|---|
| Born | Edward Nicholas Cole September 17, 1909 Marne, Michigan, U.S. |
| Died | May 2, 1977 (aged 67) Mendon, Michigan, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Grand Rapids Community College General Motors Institute |
| Occupation | Automobile industry executive |
| Years active | 1948–1977 |
| Employer | General Motors |
| Notable work | Chevrolet Corvair, Chevrolet Vega |
Background
editCole was born in 1909 in Marne, Michigan, to Franklin Benjamin Cole (1874-1944) and Lucy Blasen Cole (1879-1962). Raised on a dairy farm, as a youth he designed, built, and sold homemade radio sets, and as a teenager became a field representative for a tractor manufacturer. He wanted to be a lawyer, but landed a part-time job in an auto parts store while attending Grand Rapids Community College.[1]
In 1930, Cole enrolled in the General Motors Institute, where he was selected by GM for an engineering assignment at Cadillac, before his graduation. He was a member of the Phi Kappa Epsilon (now Pi Kappa Alpha) Fraternity.
In 1933, he married Esther Helene Engman (1906-1980), and they had two children, Dr David E Cole and Martha Cole Lefever. He divorced Esther in 1964, to marry Dollie Ann Fechner (1930-2014),[2] and they had one child, Edward N. Cole Jr.
Cole died May 2, 1977 at age 67,[3] when he became disoriented while flying by instrument in foggy, rainy conditions, crashing in his twin-engine Beagle B.206 near Kalamazoo, Michigan.[4] At the time of the crash, the FAA had been investigating an incident on April 28th of that year, when Cole, who was instrument rated, became disoriented during another instrument landing.[5]
He was survived by his ex-wife and wife as well as his natural children, adopted children from his second wife's previous marriage (David E., Anne Cole Pierce and Robert Joseph) and stepson William Jefferson McVey III.[6] His funeral service was attended by more than 400, including dignitaries and industry executives.[7] Cole's wife Dollie, routinely described as forceful and dynamic, would later become a chief advocate of the National Corvette Museum.[8]
Career
editCole worked in engineering, rising to co-head a team (with Harry Barr) that developed the 1949 Cadillac V8. He was briefly assigned to run a GM plant in Cleveland, Ohio, when Chevrolet general manager Tom Keating requested his assignment as chief engineer.
He became chief engineer of the Chevrolet Division in 1952. His most important task was to develop a new engine for Chevy's lineup to replace the Stovebolt Six; that new engine was Chevrolet's small-block V8, a massive success that remained in production for decades. He collaborated with Zora Arkus-Duntov to revitalize the weak-performing early Corvettes, and he also introduced engineering and design advancements in the Chevrolet car and truck lines between 1955 and 1962.[9]
Cole was promoted to general manager of Chevrolet in 1956. During these years, Chevy was a perennial sales leader, but with only larger cars in the lineup. As general manager of Chevrolet, he directed the development of the Corvair intended to pursue the compact car market. The strong early sales of the new car with its radical design with rear-engine, rear-wheel drive layout, put Cole on the cover of Time magazine October 5, 1959 issue.[10] Cole was promoted to head the GM car and truck group in 1961, then to executive vice-president in 1965, and to president in 1967.
Cole was chief engineer of the Chevrolet Vega and directed the GM design staff in developing their first subcompact, four passenger vehicle. Cole's persistence in getting his advanced engineering projects to the production line resulted in the innovative aluminum engines in both the Corvair and Vega. He "would preside over Vega's troubled launch, which was intertwined with a disastrous 1970 confrontation between GM and the United Auto Workers."[1] Ironically, Cole's greatest engineering triumph came the same year.[1] Cole ordered engine compression ratios reduced after 1970 knowing regulations would tighten. Cole oversaw the transition away from leaded gasoline and prepared GM for catalytic converters in 1975.[1]
Cole retired from GM in 1974. He then became chairman and CEO of Checker Motors Corporation and Chairman of International Husky, an air-freight company. In 1977, the Rifle River Scout Canoe Base was renamed the Edward N. Cole Canoe Base to reflect the dedication of Edward N. Cole to Scouting in the Detroit Area. Cole became a member of Michigan Gamma Chapter of the Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society in 1952.[11] In 1998, Cole was posthumously inducted into the Corvette Hall of Fame.[12]
His son, David E. Cole, is Chairman Emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) in Ann Arbor, Michigan.[13][14]
He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1977.[15] Cole is featured in the History Channel documentary film, The Cars That Made America.
References
edit- ^ a b c d Donnelly, Jim (May 2007). "Edward N. Cole". Hemmings Classic Car. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
In the early 1970s, the world was changing faster than the automobile industry that served it. The first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970. That same year, a major amendment to the existing federal Clean Air Act, which had first been passed to address smog in Los Angeles, established rigid standards limiting tailpipe emissions from new cars. Detroit's response, at least if you believe the media accounts of that era, was that the new standards couldn't be met. The automakers accused Congress of trying to legislate the limits of physics and chemistry. Despite the fact that offshore competitors, most famously Honda, introduced powertrains that easily met the new pollution standards, pundits wailed that Washington was about to put Detroit out of business. Predictably, the media mouths hadn't consulted anyone in the community of automotive engineering, or at least, they hadn't bothered to give Ed Cole a call. Had they done so, Cole likely would have smiled broadly and asked what all the consternation was about in the first place. Cole firmly grasped the simple truth that since most passenger vehicles burned gasoline to produce power, the type of gasoline they used, and how effectively its burning was processed, would profoundly impact the quality of the exhaust they produced. His solution to the emissions impasse would be an epiphany, but more about that later. Cole had already well established his bona fides as a mechanical thinker who was far from doctrinaire. Cole was born in 1909 in Marne, Michigan, raised on a dairy farm and, like a lot of Michigan farm kids, showed an almost genetic aptitude for absorbing technical knowledge. In Cole's case, he designed, built and sold homemade radio sets. As a teenager, he graduated to the position of field representative for a tractor manufacturer. His earliest aspiration was to become a lawyer, but while attending college in Grand Rapids, he found a part-time job in an auto parts store. Cole had already rebuilt two cars by this time, and made a life's decision to instead pursue a career in the car business. That landed him in 1930 at the General Motors Institute, the cooperative school for aspiring engineers and technicians, where he was sponsored by Cadillac. Then as now, a large part of the school's graduates (since 1998, it's been named Kettering University) go on to work at GM. Cole proved to be an exceptional student, and graduated early to work directly in Cadillac's engineering department. By 1943, he was Cadillac's chief industrial designer, and then chief engineer, which put him in charge of Cadillac's program to create its first post-war, short-stroke, high-compression V-8. Cole was moving as fast as his creations and, in 1952, he was named to GM's top technical job, chief engineer of Chevrolet. At that point, he took the first steps toward designing the car that would come to define his career at GM. In the immediate post-war years, more than one American manufacturer looked seriously at producing a new line of smaller, less-expensive cars. For a while, Ford had one under active design. Nash and Kaiser-Frazer introduced the Rambler and Henry J, respectively. Chevrolet had mulled over building a similar car, the Cadet, but it never reached production. Cole, however, refused to round-file the idea of a compact Chevy. He directed his staff to continue the development of an advanced small car using a secretive, back-channel process. Cole gave his engineers virtually free rein to create one prototype after another, until they came up with a rear-engine design powered by a horizontally opposed, air-cooled engine, and disguised with a modified Porsche body shell. Cole loved it. This was in 1956, when his power grew exponentially, as he was named general manager of Chevrolet and a GM vice president. Despite some internal misgivings that an American compact would never sell, Cole correctly surmised that Fifties excess had fairly run its course, and the Corvair debuted to strong sales, which landed Cole, and the car he inspired, on the cover of Time. The Corvair's subsequent problems in the marketplace did not blunt Cole's respect within GM or his increased responsibilities. He won a seat on GM's board of directors in 1961. He presided over two key redesigns of the Corvette, and was selected to become president of General Motors in 1967. The start of Cole's tenure at the helm saw design work underway on another segment-redefining car, the Chevrolet Vega, although Cole would preside over the Vega's troubled launch, which was intertwined with a disastrous 1970 confrontation between GM and the United Auto Workers. Ironically, the same year was the foundation for Cole's greatest triumph as an engineer. Knowing that federal regulations would tighten, Cole ordered that GM engines' compression ratios be reduced across the board after 1970. That neutered the muscle car, but Cole realized that meeting the new rules would require the widespread adoption of unleaded gasoline, along with exhaust scrubbers. The new compression ratios anticipated unleaded fuel's lack of anti-knock properties. That was one element of a multiple-thrust approach that also included the dropped compression and the scrubbers, which were officially called catalytic converters. They turned carbon monoxide into carbon dioxide and unburned hydrocarbons into carbon dioxide and water. Cole deserves credit for weaning American cars from leaded gasoline, and for having GM ready for the converters' introduction in 1975. Cole was then retired from GM, and became chairman of Checker Motor Corporation in Kalamazoo. He died on May 2, 1977, when the small plane he was piloting crashed during a storm. This article originally appeared in the May, 2007 issue of Hemmings Classic Car.
- ^ "AUTOS: The New Generation". Time. 5 October 1959. Archived from the original on November 4, 2012. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Accident report: NTSB identification: CHI77FA042". The National Transportation Safety Board. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Volume 1. National Academy of Engineering. 1979. pp. 27–32. doi:10.17226/578. ISBN 978-0-309-02889-9. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ Susan Watson (May 12, 1977). "Cole Flew Poorly 5 Days Before Death". Detroit Free Press.
- ^ James Dewey (May 3, 1977). "Air Crash Kills Ex-GM Chief Cole: a Rare Breed". Detroit Free Press.
- ^ Julie Morris (May 6, 1977). "Auto Giants Pay Tribute To Cole in Simple Rites". Detroit Free Press.
- ^ "About Dollie Cole". Dollie Ann Cole.
- ^ "Edward N. Cole". GM Heritage page. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Ed Cole on cover". Time. Vol. LXXIV, no. 14. 5 October 1959. Archived from the original on November 30, 2007. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Tau Beta Pi Leaders and Innovators". TBP engineering honor society. Archived from the original on 19 June 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Corvette Hall of Fame: Edward N. Cole". National Corvette Museum. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ Beeke, Candace (29 April 2009). "David Cole, Center for Automotive Research: Auto's future vital to U.S. economy". Michigan Live. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Dr. David E. Cole, Chairman Emeritus, Center for Automotive Research" (PDF). German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest. Archived from the original (PDF) on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2011.
- ^ "Edward N. Cole". Hall of Fame Inductees. Automotive Hall of Fame. 1977. Archived from the original on March 16, 2016. Retrieved March 15, 2016.