For: Packard (surname)

Packard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899 and the last in 1958.

1899–1905

Packard was founded by James Ward Packard (Lehigh University Class of 1884), William Doud Packard and his partner, George Lewis Weiss, in the city of Warren, Ohio. James Ward believed that they could build a better horseless carriage than the Winton cars owned by Weiss (an important Winton stockholder) and, being himself a mechanical engineer, had some ideas for improvement on the designs of current automobiles. By 1899, they were building vehicles. The company, which they called the Ohio Automobile Company, quickly introduced a number of innovations in its designs, including the modern steering wheel and, years later, the first production 12-cylinder engine.

While the Cole 30 and Colt Runabout were US$1500, the high-volume Oldsmobile Runabout went for US$650, Western's Gale Model A roadster was US$500, and the Black went as low as $375, the Packards concentrated on cars with prices starting at $2,600. Packard automobiles developed a following among wealthy purchasers both in the United States and abroad.

Henry Bourne Joy, a member of one of Detroit's oldest and wealthiest families, bought a Packard. Impressed by its reliability, he visited the Packards and soon enlisted a group of investors—including Truman Handy Newberry and Russell A. Alger Jr. On October 2, 1902, this group refinanced and renamed the New York and Ohio Automobile Company as "Packard Motor Car Company", with James as president. Alger later served as vice-president. Packard moved its automobile operation to Detroit soon after, and Joy became general manager, later to be chairman of the board. An original Packard, reputedly the first manufactured, was donated by a grateful James Packard to his alma mater, Lehigh University, and is preserved there in the Packard Laboratory. Another is on display at the Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio.

The 3.5 million ft² (325,000 m²) Packard plant on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit covered over 35 acres (142,000 m²). It was designed by Albert Kahn, and included the first use of reinforced concrete for industrial construction in Detroit. When opened in 1903, it was considered the most modern automobile manufacturing facility in the world, and its skilled craftsmen practised over eighty trades. The dilapidated plant still stands. Architect Kahn also designed The Packard Proving Grounds at Utica, Michigan.

1904-1930

From this beginning, through and beyond the 1930s, Packard-built vehicles were perceived as very competitive in the class of high-priced luxury American automobiles. The company was commonly referred to as being one of the "Three P's" of American motordom royalty, along with Pierce-Arrow of Buffalo, New York and Peerless of Cleveland, Ohio.Fact: date=July 2008For most of its history Packard was guided by its President and General Manager Alvan Macauley who also served as President of the National Automobile Manufactures Association.Inducted into the Automobile Hall of Fame, Macauley took Packard to the number one designer and producer of luxury automobiles in the United States and was highly competitive abroad, with markets in sixty-one countries and gross income of $21,889,000 million in 1928. Macauley was responsible for the iconic Packard slogan, "Ask the Man Who Owns One."