Warren Edward Avis (August 4, 1915 – April 24, 2007) was an American

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values t ...

who founded Avis Car Rentals in 1946.

Biography

Born in

Bay City, Michigan Bay City is a city and county seat of Bay County in the U.S. state of Michigan, located near the base of the Saginaw Bay on Lake Huron. As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 34,932, and it is the principal city of the Bay City Met ...

, Avis graduated from

Bay City Central High School Bay City Central High School (BCC) is a high school located at 1624 Columbus Avenue, Bay City, Michigan, United States, and a part of Bay City Public Schools. Its mascot is the wolf, and its colors are purple and gold. Building history The buil ...

in 1933. He served in the

United States Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

as a bombardier and became a captain. When he got out, he bought a stake in a Ford dealership and began his plan to rent cars at airports. He said that he got the idea when as a pilot he could not find ground transport at airports.Warren Avis, car rental pioneer, dies at 92
Although he did not technically invent the rental car business, he ensured its future by deciding to locate his offices at airports instead of the downtown areas or central business districts where others were then located. Avis opened Avis Rent A Car at

Willow Run Airport Willow Run Airport is an airport in Van Buren Charter Township and Ypsilanti Township, near Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States that serves freight, corporate, and general aviation. Due to its very close proximity to Detroit Metropolitan Ai ...

Ypsilanti, Michigan Ypsilanti (), commonly shortened to Ypsi, is a city in Washtenaw County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 20,648. The city is bounded to the north by Superior Township and on the west, south, an ...

and at

Miami International Airport Miami International Airport , also known as MIA and historically as Wilcox Field, is the primary airport serving the greater Miami metropolitan area with over 1,000 daily flights to 167 domestic and international destinations, including most c ...

in Florida.Patton, Naomi R. (April 25, 2007). Warren Avis: His idea led to airport rental car firms. ''

Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primar ...

'' He sold the company in 1954 for $8 million. Avis established his business credentials by positioning himself as a capable negotiator between the major automotive companies and their union leaders and rank-and-file members. His unique approach, which became the subject for several of his books, involved soliciting ideas from an assembled group of stakeholders that could range from the C.E.O. to the lowest-level hourly worker, accept their ideas in anonymous fashion, combine them where overlapping and present them to the assembled group for discussion without attribution. Avis felt that ownership of ideas led to unnecessary championing by the idea's owner and that underlings would needlessly defer to upper-tier managers and executives. His process yielded spirited discussion by attendees and inevitable consensus in most instances on those ideas that prevailed. Avis would later head Avis Enterprises which invested in high tech electronic companies.Warren Avis
In addition his real estate holdings at what was known as Avis Farms on the south side of Ann Arbor, Michigan were converted to commercial offices and industrial parks. On his paternal side, Avis is distantly related to the Portuguese royal dynasty

House of Aviz The House of Aviz ( Portuguese: ''Casa de Avis''), also known as the Joanine Dynasty (''Dinastia Joanina''), was a dynasty of Portuguese origin which flourished during the Renaissance and the period of the Portuguese discoveries, when Portugal ...

, who ruled

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

in the 14th century. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2000. He died at his home in

Ann Arbor, Michigan Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all ...

natural causes In many legal jurisdictions, the manner of death is a determination, typically made by the coroner, medical examiner, police, or similar officials, and recorded as a vital statistic. Within the United States and the United Kingdom, a distin ...

.Barbaro, Michael (April 25, 2007). Warren E. Avis, 92, Founder of Car Rental Company, Dies. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avis, Warren 1915 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American businesspeople American automotive pioneers American transportation businesspeople People from Bay City, Michigan United States Army Air Forces officers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II