The pioneer

A BRIEF RUN-THROUGH OF THE LIFE AND WORKS OF HARLEY JEFFERSON EARL, THE FATHER OF AMERICAN CAR DESIGN, CONCEPT CARS, THE CORVETTE, AND OVER 50 MILLION AUTOMOBILES!

- SIMRAN RASTOGI

Fortune favours the brave. And the firsts. But it’s up to interpretation, really, whether being first really needs bravery, or if it’s just being at the right place, at the right time. For Harley Jefferson Earl, General Motors’ first ever design chief, and father of the Corvette — an automobile designer who famously didn’t ever actually put pen to paper, it was probably a mix of the two. A mean to an ends, of sorts, when his thriving family coach building business was recognised by the then CEO of General Motors, Alfred Sloan, at a time when the design of an automobile was just starting to influence buying decisions. The ends, in this case, include countless success stories under GM’s brands like Buick, Cadillac, Pontiac and Chevrolet, and certainly justify Harley Earl’s position.