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

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

Vice President of Design

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

. Hershey is known for his 1932

Peerless Peerless may refer to: Companies and organizations * Peerless Motor Company, an American automobile manufacturer. * Peerless Brewing Company, in Birkenhead, UK * Peerless Group, an insurance and financial services company in India * Peerless R ...

V-16 prototype, 1949

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed i ...

tailfins The tailfin era of automobile styling encompassed the 1950s and 1960s, peaking between 1955 and 1961. It was a style that spread worldwide, as car designers picked up styling trends from the US automobile industry, where it was regarded as the ...

, and the 1955

Ford Thunderbird The Ford Thunderbird (colloquially called the T-Bird) is a personal luxury car produced by Ford from model years 1955 until 1997 and 2002 until 2005 across 11 distinct generations. Introduced as a two-seat convertible, the Thunderbird was pro ...

Early life and education

Hershey was born in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, and raised in

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...

and

La Puente, California La Puente (Spanish for "The Bridge") is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city had a population of 39,816 at the 2010 census and is approximately east of downtown Los Angeles. History The original inhabitants of the ...

. He attended

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

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, 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 commercial district. I ...

under the guidance of Frank Spring. While at Murphy, he was assigned the task of designing the 1932

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 prototyp ...

. From Murphy, Hershey went to work for GM where he focused on the 1933

Pontiac Pontiac may refer to: *Pontiac (automobile), a car brand *Pontiac (Ottawa leader) ( – 1769), a Native American war chief Places and jurisdictions Canada *Pontiac, Quebec, a municipality ** Apostolic Vicariate of Pontiac, now the Roman Catholic D ...

. 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 Grou ...

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. It was an Australian automobile manufacturer, importer, and exporter which sold cars under its own marque in Australia. In its last thre ...

make in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. Hershey served in the Navy during

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. 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 or 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 of the "Thr ...

, he went to

Ford Ford commonly refers to: * Ford Motor Company, an automobile manufacturer founded by Henry Ford * Ford (crossing), a shallow crossing on a river Ford may also refer to: Ford Motor Company * Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company * Ford F ...

where he designed the 1953-1957 full sized Fords. According to an interview given by Hershey to James W. Howell in 1995,

George Walker George Walker may refer to: Arts and letters * George Walker (chess player) (1803–1879), English chess player and writer *George Walker (composer) (1922–2018), American composer * George Walker (illustrator) (1781–1856), author of ''The Co ...

had been hired as the public face of Ford design. Hershey designed the landmark Ford Thunderbird, and admitted so in a 1954 interview, 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 ...

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 LGBT people from California People in the automobile industry People from La Puente, California People from Pasadena, California Occidental College alumni {{US-engineer-stub