Franklin Quick Hershey (1907–1997) was an American automobile designer and student of

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

Vice President of Design

Harley Earl Harley Jarvis Earl (November 22, 1893 – April 10, 1969) was an American Automotive design, automotive designer and business executive. He was the initial designated head of design at General Motors, later becoming vice president, the first ...

. Hershey is known for his 1932 Peerless V-16 prototype, 1949

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

tailfins, and the 1955

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird is a personal luxury car manufactured and marketed by Ford Motor Company for model years 1955 to 2005, with a hiatus from 1998 to 2001. Ultimately gaining a broadly used colloquial nickname, the ''T-Bird'', Ford Introduce ...

Early life and education

Hershey was born in

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

, and raised in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

and La Puente, California. He attended Occidental College where he majored in forestry.

Career

Hershey began his career at Murphy Coachworks of

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commerci ...

under the guidance of Frank Spring. While at Murphy, he was assigned the task of designing the 1932 Peerless X-D V-16

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

. From Murphy, Hershey went to work for GM where he focused on the 1933 Pontiac. In designing the 1935 Pontiac, he introduced the Silver Streak design theme that the make would continue until 1956. He also was assigned to GM's

Opel Opel Automobile GmbH (), usually shortened to Opel, is a German automobile manufacturer which has been a subsidiary of Stellantis since 16 January 2021. It was owned by the American automaker General Motors from 1929 until 2017 and the PSA Gr ...

design offices in Germany in 1936, and GM's

Holden Holden, formerly known as General Motors-Holden, was an Australian subsidiary company of General Motors. Founded in Adelaide, it was an automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter that sold cars under its own marque in Australia. It was ...

make in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. Hershey served in the Navy during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. After leaving GM, Hershey set up his own design firm.

attempted to lure him back to GM; he chose not to return only to learn years later that had he returned he would have been Earl's first choice to replace him as GM's Vice President of Design. After several years with

Packard Packard (formerly the Packard Motor Car Company) was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana, in 1958. One ...

, he went to Ford where he designed the 1953-1957 full sized Fords. According to an interview given by Hershey to James W. Howell in 1995, George Walker had been hired as the public face of Ford design. In a 1954 interview, Hershey said he designed the landmark Ford Thunderbird, which created friction between Walker and Hershey.Independent research by James W. Howell (Collectible Automobile, December, 1995, p. 72) verifies Hershey's claim based on original drawings, notes and first person accounts. After leaving Ford, Hershey also worked for

Kaiser Aluminum Kaiser Aluminum Corporation is an American aluminum producer. It is a spinoff from Kaiser Aluminum and Chemicals Corporation, which came to be when common stock was offered in Permanente Metals Corporation and Permanente Metals Corporation's na ...

and Rite Autotronics, heading design effort in both companies.

Personal life

Hershey was married and the father of two children. He died in California on October 20, 1997.

Sources

* * Howell, James W. and Hershey, Franklin Q. "Franklin Q. Hershey's Murphy-Bodied Peerless V-16 Prototype" ''Collectible Automobile'', Volume 12, Number 4, December 1995. pp. 56–63. *

References

American automobile designers Ford designers 1907 births 1997 deaths LGBTQ people from California People in the automobile industry People from La Puente, California People from Pasadena, California Occidental College alumni {{US-engineer-stub