Duncan McRae (1919-1984) was an American
industrial designer who spent the majority of his career designing automobiles. After spending a couple of summers working as a laborer and clay modeler for
Ford Motor Company, McRae was hired as a designer at
Kaiser-Frazier Corporation in September, 1949 where he was involved with the development of the 1951 Kaiser. He went on to work at
Studebaker Packard Corporation
The Studebaker-Packard Corporation was the entity created in 1954 by the purchase of the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan. While Studebaker was the larger of the two companies, P ...
beginning in August, 1955, where he became chief stylist.
Along with other designers at Studebaker, McRae helped design several models, including the 1958
Packard Hawk and the 1959
Studebaker Lark
The Studebaker Lark is a compact car that was produced by Studebaker from 1959 to 1966.
From its introduction in early 1959 until 1962, the Lark was a product of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. In mid-1962, the company dropped "Packard" fr ...
, a small car which sold in sufficient numbers to keep Studebaker afloat for several more years. McRae left Studebaker in 1960 and worked for a year at
Curtiss-Wright Corporation. He then operated his own design studio in Muskegon, Michigan, working on various freelance design projects.
In 1964 McRae was hired by Ford Motor Company as a designer. He was transferred later that year to Ford of England, where we worked on the design of the
Mark II Cortina, the Escort and the original
Capri
Capri ( , ; ; ) is an island located in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the Sorrento Peninsula, on the south side of the Gulf of Naples in the Campania region of Italy. The main town of Capri that is located on the island shares the name. It has been ...
. In 1967 McRae was transferred to Ford of Germany where he led the design team which developed the Taunus 23M. After spending a year back at Ford's design center in Dearborn, Michigan, McRae was transferred to Ford of Australia in September 1969 where he became chief of design.
McRae retired from Ford Motor Company in 1975 and moved to Australia where he operated a cattle farm in
Apollo Bay, Victoria
Apollo Bay is a coastal town in southwestern Victoria, Australia. It is situated on the eastern side of Cape Otway, along the edge of the Barham River and on the Great Ocean Road, in the Colac Otway Shire. The town had a population of 1,790 at ...
for several years before returning to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan until his death in 1984.
References
* Automobile Quarterly, Volume XII, No 3 - 1974.
{{DEFAULTSORT:McRae, Duncan
1919 births
1984 deaths
American industrial designers
Ford designers