Karl Probst (October 20, 1883 – August 25, 1963) was an American

freelance ''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who Invention, invent, design, build, maintain and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials. They aim to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while ...

and automotive pioneer, credited with drafting the design drawings of the first prototype of the Bantam Reconnaissance Car, also known as the World War II "jeep" in 1940.

Biography

He was born in

Point Pleasant, West Virginia Point Pleasant is a city in and the county seat of Mason County, West Virginia, United States, at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Kanawha River, Kanawha Rivers. The population was 4,101 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 censu ...

, to Charles and Eva (Knight) Probst. He studied engineering at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

and graduated in 1906. Probst was recruited by American Bantam Car Company in 1940 to help it win a contract to provide the

U.S. Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of the United Stat ...

with a lightweight reconnaissance vehicle that could transport troops and equipment across rugged terrain. Bantam had provided the specifications to the Army, and Probst drafted the design for the Jeep in two days, commencing on June 17, 1940, Bantam's first hand-built prototype was complete and running by September 21, 1940, just meeting the forty-nine-day deadline and was delivered to the Army Quartermaster Corps for testing at Camp Holabird, MD. He died in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

, on August 25, 1963.

Legacy

The

Port Authority of Allegheny County Pittsburgh Regional Transit (PRT) is the public agency responsible for most public transportation services in the Greater Pittsburgh region in Pennsylvania. It is the second-largest public transit agency in Pennsylvania and the 20th-largest in t ...

pays homage to Karl Probst by putting his name on one or more of the city buses. Around 1990, a crescent-shaped street in

Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...

(

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

) was named after Karl Probst, both extremities of which open on another street named after Commodore John Hughes-Hallett, in a district close to the ''Mémorial pour la Paix'' museum, where a majority of streets commemorate personalities linked with the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Résistance, and the subsequent making of the

European Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organisation created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisbo ...

.Caen map, La Poste, 1993.

References

WQED Pittsburgh: Pittsburghers of the Century: December 1999:

*In August 2011, the VOA

Special English Learning English (previously known as Special English) is a controlled version of the English language first used on October 19, 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America (VOA). World news and oth ...

service of the

Voice of America Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is an international broadcasting network funded by the federal government of the United States that by law has editorial independence from the government. It is the largest and oldest of the American internation ...

broadcast a report on the Bantam Jeep as part of its American Mosaic series. A transcript and MP3 of the program, intended for English learners, can be found a
The Jeep – One of the Most Famous Vehicles in the World – is Celebrated at its Birthplace
{{DEFAULTSORT:Probst, Karl People from Point Pleasant, West Virginia 1963 deaths 1883 births People from Pittsburgh Engineers from West Virginia American automotive pioneers 20th-century American engineers Engineers from Pennsylvania Inventors from West Virginia