Roy Dikeman Chapin Sr. (February 23, 1880 – February 16, 1936) was an American industrialist and a co-founder of

Hudson Motor Company The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other branded automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., from 1909 until 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation (AMC). The Hudson name was continued through ...

, the predecessor of

American Motors Corporation American Motors Corporation (AMC; commonly referred to as American Motors) was an American automobile manufacturing company formed by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and Hudson Motor Car Company on May 1, 1954. At the time, it was the ...

. He also served as the

United States Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...

from August 8, 1932, to March 3, 1933, during the final months of the administration of President

Herbert Hoover Herbert Clark Hoover (August 10, 1874 – October 20, 1964) was an American politician who served as the 31st president of the United States from 1929 to 1933 and a member of the Republican Party, holding office during the onset of the Gr ...

Early life

He was born on February 23, 1880, in

Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, making ...

, the son of Edward Cornelius Chapin and Ella Rose King. He attended the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. Chapin married the former Inez Tiedeman in 1914. The couple had six children. One son,

Roy D. Chapin Jr. Roy Dikeman Chapin Jr. (September 21, 1915 – August 5, 2001) was the chairman and chief executive officer of American Motors Corporation (AMC). Chapin's father, Roy D. Chapin Sr., was one of the co-founders of the Hudson Motor Car Company; Hud ...

, would also pursue a career with

and eventually leading

(AMC).

Commercial interests

Herbert Hoover at Nine-Point Prosperity Conference cph

Chapin headed the consortium of businessmen and engineers that founded the

Hudson Motor Car Company The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other branded automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, U.S., from 1909 until 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to form American Motors Corporation (AMC). The Hudson name was continued through ...

in 1908. The company was named for

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

merchant

Joseph L. Hudson Joseph Lowthian Hudson (October 17, 1846 – July 5, 1912), a.k.a. J. L. Hudson, was the merchant who founded the Hudson's department store in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson also supplied the seed capital for the establishment, in 1909, of Roy D. Cha ...

, who provided the majority of capital for the operation's start-up. Chapin was also behind the 1918 formation of the Essex Motors Company, a subsidiary of Hudson. Essex is notable for developing the first affordable mass-produced enclosed automobile in 1922. Because of the success of the inexpensive enclosed Essex Coach line, the American automobile industry shifted away from open

touring car Touring car and tourer are both terms for open cars (i.e. cars without a fixed roof). "Touring car" is a style of open car built in the United States which seats four or more people. The style was popular from the early 1900s to the 1930s. Th ...

s in order to meet consumer demand for all-weather passenger vehicles. In 1927 he replaced Clifton as the head of the National Automobile Chamber of Commerce. In addition to his corporate interests, Chapin spearheaded the drive to build the

Lincoln Highway The Lincoln Highway is the first transcontinental highway in the United States and one of the first highways designed expressly for automobiles. Conceived in 1912 by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher, and formally dedicated October 31, 1913 ...

, along with

Henry B. Joy Henry Bourne Joy (November 23, 1864 – November 6, 1936) was an American businessman and President of the Packard Motor Car Company. He was a major developer of automotive activities as well as being a social activist. In 1913, Joy and Ca ...

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 ...

Motors. While Chapin viewed a system of professionally designed and built roadways as the greatest way to grow the automobile industry, he also saw the modern roadways movement as a way to secure long-range strength for the United States as a nation.

Political activities

After building Hudson into one of the most profitable independent American automobile manufacturers, Chapin left Hudson for the Hoover administration upon his appointment in 1932. During his tenure as Secretary of Commerce, Chapin was unsuccessful in persuading

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

to provide financial help to avoid the collapse of the Union Guardian Trust Company of

. Ford's refusal to aid the bank in averting a financial failure led to the Michigan Bank Holiday, an event that began a series of state

bank holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or held ...

s and ultimately to the passage of Roosevelt administration's

Emergency Banking Act __NOTOC__ The Emergency Banking Act (EBA) (the official title of which was the Emergency Banking Relief Act), Public Law 73-1, 48 Stat. 1 (March 9, 1933), was an act passed by the United States Congress in March 1933 in an attempt to stabilize th ...

of 1933.

Death

Chapin returned to Hudson in March 1933. His final three years were spent trying to save the company from the effects of the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

. He died in

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

, on February 16, 1936. He was succeeded at Hudson by

A.E. Barit Abraham Edward Barit (August 30, 1890 – July 14, 1974) was an American industrialist who served as the president and CEO of the Hudson Motor Car Company from 1936 to 1954 when Hudson merged with Nash Motors to form American Motors Corporation. ...

. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery.

Legacy

In 1927, Chapin commissioned noted architect

John Russell Pope John Russell Pope (April 24, 1874 – August 27, 1937) was an American architect whose firm is widely known for designing major public buildings, including the National Archives and Records Administration building (completed in 1935), the Jeffe ...

to design a residence for his family at 447 Lake Shore Road in

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Grosse Pointe Farms is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,479 at the 2010 census. As part of the Grosse Pointe collection of cities, it is a northeastern city of Metro Detroit and shares a small wester ...

. Pope later designed the

Jefferson Memorial The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial built in Washington, D.C. between 1939 and 1943 in honor of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, a central intellectual force behind the Am ...

National Archives Building The National Archives Building, known informally as Archives I, is the headquarters of the United States National Archives and Records Administration. It is located north of the National Mall at 700 Pennsylvania Avenue (Washington, D.C.), Penns ...

and

National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Bryant Fleming Bryant Fleming (July 19, 1877 – September 19, 1946) was an American architect and landscape architect. Early life Fleming was born on July 19, 1877 in Buffalo, New York. He graduated from Cornell University in 1901, where he studied horticulture ...

landscaped the grounds which included 600-year-old yews imported from England. Mrs. Chapin occupied the residence until her death in 1956 when

Henry Ford II Henry Ford II (September 4, 1917 – September 29, 1987), sometimes known as "Hank the Deuce", was an American businessman in the automotive industry. He was the oldest son of Edsel Ford I and oldest grandson of Henry Ford I. He was president ...

and wife Anne purchased the property. Ford owned the estate until 1983 when he demolished the house and divided the land to construct condominiums. In 1954, Nash Kelvinator acquired Hudson in a friendly merger. The resulting company,

(AMC), continued operation until

Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...

acquired it in 1987. Chapin's son,

, served as chairman and chief executive officer of AMC and led the automaker to the acquisition of Kaiser

Jeep Jeep is an American automobile marque, now owned by multi-national corporation Stellantis. Jeep has been part of Chrysler since 1987, when Chrysler acquired the Jeep brand, along with remaining assets, from its previous owner American Moto ...

Corporation in 1970. Chapin was inducted into the

Automotive Hall of Fame The Automotive Hall of Fame is an American museum. It was founded in 1939 and has over 800 worldwide honorees. It is part of the MotorCities National Heritage Area. the Automotive Hall of Fame includes persons who have contributed greatly to au ...

in 1972. His grandson,

William R. Chapin William R. Chapin (born June 7, 1948 in Detroit, Michigan, United States) is the American grandson of Roy D. Chapin, a founder of the Hudson Motor Car Company, and the son of Roy D. Chapin, Jr., the former chairman and CEO of the American Motors ...

, was named president of the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2010.

References

External links

* * The Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan has a collection of Chapin's paper
link
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chapin, Roy D. 1880 births 1936 deaths Chapin, Robert "Roy" Dikeman Hoover administration cabinet members 20th-century American politicians Businesspeople from Lansing, Michigan Hotchkiss School alumni University of Michigan alumni Hudson Motor Car Company American founders of automobile manufacturers Michigan Republicans Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit)