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William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each seemingly independent, with different automobile lines – bound under a unified corporate holding company.
William Durant dropped out of school at age 17. Ignoring his family’s expectations for him to become a lawyer, Durant’s first job was piling lumber, and his second job was selling cigars. He alone sold more than three other sales people combined. By age 24, Durant was already a successful businessman in the old lumber town of Flint, Michigan.
William Crapo Durant, American industrialist and founder of General Motors Corporation, which later became one of the largest corporations in the world in terms of sales. After establishing a carriage company in Michigan in 1886, Durant took over a small firm in 1903 and began to manufacture Buick
William Crapo Durant. The American industrialist William Crapo Durant (1861-1947) was the founder of General Motors, an automobile manufacturing company. William C. Durant was born in Boston, Mass., on Dec. 8, 1861. He grew up in Flint, Mich., where he became a leading carriage manufacturer.
William Crapo "Billy" Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry, the founder of General Motors and Chevrolet who created the system of multi-brand holding companies with different lines of cars. Biography
The founder of General Motors, William Crapo Durant was born on December 8, 1861 in Boston, Massachusetts. He dropped out of high school to work at his grandfather’s lumberyard in Flint, Michigan. His grandfather, Henry H. Crapo, was governor of Michigan from 1864-1868.In 1885 Durant married Clara Pitt.
William Durant, founder of General Motors, was called “King of the Bulls.” In October of 1929, he would lose millions in a desperate, single-handed effort to stop the stock market crash.
He founded the automotive giant that would later become General Motors, first by manufacturing shock-absorbing carriage seats to later absorbing major corporations in automotive manufacturing. Durant is usually overshadowed by automotive pioneer Henry Ford, especially in Michigan.
William C. Durant founded General Motors in 1908. Originally intended as a holding company for the Buick Car Company, within two years Durant brought some of the biggest names in the automotive industry, including Oldsmobile, Cadillac , Oakland (later known as Pontiac) and the predecessors of GMC Truck.
William Crapo Durant was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each seemingly independent, with different automobile lines – bound under a unified corporate holding company.