James Wright McLernon (August 7, 1927 – March 21, 2020) was an automobile company executive who worked for

Chevrolet Chevrolet ( ), colloquially referred to as Chevy and formally the Chevrolet Motor Division of General Motors Company, is an American automobile division of the American manufacturer General Motors (GM). Louis Chevrolet (1878–1941) and ous ...

while at

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 ...

as an engineer. Born in

Kenmore, New York Kenmore is a village in Erie County, New York, United States. The population was 15,423 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Buffalo–Niagara Falls metropolitan area. Kenmore is in the south part of the town of Tonawanda, and together with th ...

, he became the first president in 1976 of manufacturing at

Volkswagen of America Volkswagen Group of America, Inc. (sometimes referred to as Volkswagen of America, abbreviated to VWoA), is the North American operational headquarters, and subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group of automobile companies of Germany. VWoA is responsi ...

, the U.S. division of

Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...

AG. He was assigned to get VW's Westmoreland Assembly Plant, the first factory in the United States operated by a non-American automaker, up and running in 1978 and then became president of VW's entire American division. His role at Volkswagen was controversial, due to the softening of the

Volkswagen Rabbit The Volkswagen Golf () is a compact car/small family car (C-segment) produced by the German automotive manufacturer Volkswagen since 1974, marketed worldwide across eight generations, in various body configurations and under various nameplates ...

(known in Europe as the Golf), to make the car appeal to a mass market. He was fired by Carl Hahn when Hahn became the chairman of Volkswagen AG in 1982. McLernon died March 21, 2020 at Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak, Michigan and was buried at Acacia Park Cemetery, Beverly Hills, Michigan.Obituary for James W. McLernon

References

Sources

* University of Buffalo, Alumni Profiles, Fall 1998: ''James W. McLernon, Class of 1950'' * Kiley, David, "Getting The Bugs Out: The Rise, Fall and Comeback of Volkswagen in America", ''Adweek'', 2002 1927 births 2020 deaths People in the automobile industry People from Kenmore, New York Volkswagen Group executives {{automobile-bio-stub