A remarkable Scotsman was born in Arbroath, Scotland 120 years ago. He was a man who deserved fame and fortune, yet died in poverty and is virtually unknown in his native land. He was David Dunbar Buick, born 9-17-1854 at 26 Green Street, Arbroath, Scotland.
Do you recognize the name? You should! David started the company that grew into GM, the mightiest car-making empire in the world. Over 17 million cars bearing his name and crest have rolled off production lines, yet he was involved in making only 120 of them.
His father, Alexander Buick, a joiner, emigrated to America with his wife and son when David was 2. As a young man, David settled in Detroit, where he started manufacturing plumbing materials. He made a tiny fortune after he invented a process for heat-binding porcelain to wrought iron to make white bath tubs--a much sought after status symbol in those days.
Around the turn of the century, David saw his first motor car. He became obsessed with cars and in 1902 he organized Buick Manufacturing Company to make them. But, his advanced designs invariably left the firm over-spent. He borrowed $5,000 from a friend, Ben Briscoe, who didn't doubt David's ability as a craftsman but was wary of his business abilities. When Briscoe heard that a firm in Flint, 115 miles from Detroit, was thinking of starting car production, he persuaded David to team up with them. The firm was impressed with David'd car. They borrowed $10,000 from a local bank to settle Buick debts. The Buick plant was shifted lock, stock and starting crank to Flint. But the deal left Buick with little say in the firm. In effect, he signed away his future. Still the firm completed 16 cars in 1903 and 34 in 1904, all experimental machines at $1200 each.
At this point, William C. Durant came onto the scene. A brilliant business man, he'd already made a fortune in the carriage industry. On November 1, 1904, Durant became general manager of the Buick Motor Co. with Buick president.
Durant, who would later create GM, was a go-getter. Like Ford, he knew the industry's future lay in speeding up production and cutting assembly costs. But Buick was a craftsman who regarded each car as a unique invention. One of the two had to go. It was David Buick. In 1906, age 52, he severed his last link with the firm and returned to Detroit with his wife and son.
The company went from strength to strength. In 1908, Durant acquired Olsmobile and Cadillac to form GM. Chevrolet joined in 1918. Britain's Vauxhall was acquired in 1926 and Germany's Opel some years later. Buick production reached 100,000 cars a year in 1923. Today there is a 300 acre complex employing 20,000 people and producing 350,000 cars a year.
David Buick died of colon cancer, impoverished and forgotten, in Harper Hospital, Detroit on March 5, 1929. Until a few weeks earlier, though 74, he was still working as an inspector at Detroit's trade school. His wife died some years earlier and his son Thomas died in 1943.
Ben Briscoe wrote sadly in 1921 that had David been able to keep his shares in the firm, they would have been worth more than $10,000,000 at that time. Their value today would be almost incalculable.
The house where David Buick was born, no longer stands. It was demolished years ago to make way for new council houses. But as the birthplace of a man who greatly influenced transport, its setting is appropriately close to the burgh's new four-lane throughway, Burnside Drive. Arbroath could do worse than rename it Buick Way, as a tribute to Scotland's most remarkable forgotten son.
The man who actually built David's first car was Buick's first chief
engineer, Walter Marr. Walter is the man that actually made the Buick cars.
He patented important things that made Buick famous at the time,
the most famous being the valve-in-head engine. He is truly the man
who made the company possible since he designed and built the cars to begin
with and for the next 15 years. He stopped consulting as much in 1923.
Some more history to check into is the Marr AutoCar, which, had the plant not burned down, would have made Marr's name as or more famous than the Buick name is today.
Though he did not come to the same tragic end David Buick did, his
name
is so seldom known, which is sad because he was truly the genius behind
the quality cars that first carried the Buick Motor Company to greatness.