Lewis C. Veraldi (July 16, 1930 – October 13, 1990) was a

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...

automotive engineer who was a key leader behind the creation of the

Ford Taurus The Ford Taurus is an automobile that was manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States from the 1986 to 2019 model years. Introduced in late 1985 for the 1986 model year, six generations were produced over 34 years; a brief hiat ...

. Veraldi was the son of working-class Italian immigrants who managed to get Lewis and his brother Frank into the Henry Ford Trade School with both working at Ford afterwards. Lewis would attend

Lawrence Technological University Lawrence Technological University (LTU) (Lawrence Tech) is a private university in Southfield, Michigan. It was founded in 1932 in Highland Park, Michigan, as the Lawrence Institute of Technology (LIT) by Russell E. Lawrence. The university move ...

while working at Ford. Earlier in his career, Veraldi designed a more efficient steering linkage and led the platform team for the

Ford Fiesta The Ford Fiesta is a supermini car marketed by Ford since 1976 over seven generations. Over the years, the Fiesta has mainly been developed and manufactured by Ford's European operations, and has been positioned below the Escort (later the ...

MKI. In 1979, Ford Motor Company was in danger of going bankrupt thanks to a moribund product line and increased competition from foreign automakers.

Philip Caldwell Philip Caldwell (January 27, 1920 – July 10, 2013) was the first person to run the Ford Motor Company (after John S. Gray) who was not a member of the Ford family. He orchestrated one of the most dramatically successful turnarounds in busin ...

, Ford's CEO at the time, put Veraldi in charge of a new car to turn Ford's fortunes around, aware that the future of the company would be riding on it. The Taurus would be a sales success, and set the path for a revitalized Ford Motor Company going into the 1980s and the 1990s. Often called the "father of the Taurus," Veraldi ended his career as

vice president in charge of car

development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...

, and retired in 1989. He would die from a heart attack one year later in 1990.

Honors

* Automotive Executive of the Year 1987 * Automotive Industries magazine Man of the Year 1987 * Eli Whitney Productivity Award 1987 - Society of Manufacturing Engineers * Lawrence Technological University - Veraldi Instructional Technology Resource Center (VITRC)

References

Ford people 1930 births 1990 deaths American people of Italian descent People from Livonia, Michigan {{automobile-bio-stub

Honors

See also

References