John Z. DeLorean, the flamboyant automobile
industrialist whose dream of running his own car company
dissolved into bankruptcy, died Saturday evening at Overlook
Hospital in Summit, N.J. He was 80 years old and lived in
Bedminster, N.J.
The cause was
complications after a stroke, his family said.
Mr. DeLorean, a Detroit
native, was once thought to be a contender for the
presidency of
General Motors but left the world's largest automaker in
1973 and went on to start his own company, DeLorean Motor
Company, with the backing of investors like Johnny Carson
and Sammy Davis Jr.
DeLorean Motor produced
only one model, the DMC-12, but it made a lasting
impression. In the early 1980's, with increasingly dull cars
coming from Detroit, the unpainted, stainless steel-bodied
sports car had doors that opened upward like a gull's wings
and was featured in the "Back to the Future" movies starring
Michael J. Fox.
Although the car remains a
collector's item, the life of Mr. DeLorean's company was
brief, with about 9,000 cars produced at a factory in
Northern Ireland before the company went bankrupt in 1982.
Soon after came charges by authorities in the United States
that Mr. DeLorean was selling cocaine to prop up its
finances. Mr. DeLorean was acquitted in 1984 after a highly
publicized trial.
Although he was never able
to rekindle his automotive dream-for a time he started a
wristwatch company called DeLorean Time -he never let it go.
His fourth wife, Sally, said in a brief interview yesterday
that he had designed a sports car and hoped to start another
automaker.
"He's been working on it
for the last couple years," she said.
John Zachary DeLorean was
born in Detroit on Jan. 6, 1925, the oldest of four sons of
a Ford Motor Company foundry worker. Growing up in a
working-class neighborhood, he graduated from the Lawrence
Institute of Technology and went on to earn master's degrees
in engineering and business.
He joined the small
Packard Motor Car Company as an engineer in 1952. With
ambition, insight and an eye for the unconventional, he
became a rising star, first at Packard, and starting in
1956, within G.M., the world's largest automaker. At 40, he
became the youngest general manager of G.M.'s Pontiac
division, and four years later the youngest manager of
Chevrolet. In 1972, at 48, he became a G.M. vice president.
He was an anomaly in an
industry then dominated by buttoned-down executives. He dyed
his hair jet black, wore shirts open to the navel, married a
teenage starlet and subsequently a supermodel, and became a
wonder at self-promotion. He wore long sideburns that
violated the company's unwritten dress code, and even had
the president of Ford act as best man at his second wedding.
He also owned, for a time, an interest in the San Diego
Chargers and played the jazz saxophone.
"He once told me that he
placed enjoying life very high in his list of priorities,
and he felt that contrasted with many other executives,"
said J. Patrick Wright, who collaborated with Mr. DeLorean
on a book called "On a Clear Day You Can See General
Motors."
His flair extended to
business. He led the team that created Detroit's first
muscle car, the Pontiac GTO, beginning a wave of such
vehicles. Many in the industry thought he would one day be
G.M.'s president, but he left G.M. in 1973, citing
opposition to his unorthodox business style; others said he
was dismissed. He told a reporter at the time, "There's no
forward response at General Motors to what the public wants
today."
Mr. DeLorean became intent
on creating a corporation in his image.
"If we were super, super
lucky and did everything right, we might some day have
another BMW," Mr. DeLorean said in 1977.
He opened a factory in
Dunmurry, Northern Ireland, in early 1981, which was to
produce his $25,000 sports car, at a time when the average
vehicle cost about $10,000. The British government sank $120
million into the $200 million project.
But with the DeLorean
plagued by quality problems, the company fell into financial
trouble and was the subject of a British government
investigation into financial irregularities. The inquiry
found no evidence of criminal conduct, but on Oct. 19, 1982,
the British government announced the factory would be
closed.
On the same day, in Los
Angeles, Mr. DeLorean was arrested and charged with
conspiring to obtain and distribute 55 pounds of cocaine. He
was videotaped in an F.B.I. sting, overheard declaring "it's
better than gold" when presented with a case of cocaine by
people he thought were investors but who turned out to be
law officers.
In his trial, Mr. DeLorean
contended that he had been lured into a setup. A jury in Los
Angeles acquitted him in August 1984.
Shortly thereafter, he
faced another trial, in Detroit, on fraud charges after a
grand jury accused him of siphoning off about $9 million
that investors had put into his auto company. He was
acquitted in that trial as well. He and his third wife,
Cristina Ferrare, the model and actress, were divorced in
1985.
Legal troubles drained Mr.
DeLorean's resources over the years. By 2000, he sold off
his estate in Bedminster, which is now part of a golf course
operated by Donald Trump.
In addition to his wife,
Mr. DeLorean is survived by two daughters, Kathryn Ann
DeLorean and Sheila Baldwin DeLorean; a son, Zachary Tavio
DeLorean; three brothers: Charles (Chuck) DeLorean, Jack
DeLorean and George DeLorean; and two grandchildren.
Although Mr. DeLorean's
company long ago stopped producing cars, it survives today
as a company in Texas that bought all of the remaining
DeLorean parts, and repairs and refurbishes cars for
collectors.
"You can't discount the
value of the 'Back to the Future' movies," James Espey, the
vice president of DeLorean Motor, said yesterday. "People
who saw the cars in the movies in their teens, these are
people in their early, mid 30's, well established, and they
now can get the car they wanted when they were a kid."
Although Mr. DeLorean was
not involved with the company, Mr. Espey said he spoke to
Mr. DeLorean once a month, including a talk Thursday shortly
before the stroke. Mr. Espey said Mr. DeLorean was concerned
about financial troubles of G.M.
"He had said that there
were too many bean counters and not enough engineers in the
management," said Mr. Espey.
Mark DeLorean, a nephew of
Mr. DeLorean's, said Mr. DeLorean was concerned that
automakers were relying too much on rebates to sell cars
that were not much to look at. "John's attitude was always,
'I want people's eyes to light up when they walk through the
showroom,' " Mark DeLorean said.
Leadership Focus