JNW

   

           John North Willys was born in a small central-western New York village called Canandaigua on October 25, 1873. His father was a tile maker of some repute, and also made a decent income as a master bricklayer in construction. As a young man, John North Willys began selling bicycles in upstate New York, and within a few years started manufacturing his own line of bicycles. 

        By 1900, at the age of 27, Willys had built the business up to $500,000 in sales. Now a successful entrepreneur, Willys saw his first automobile on a visit to Cleveland and immediately realized that the automobile would replace the bicycle and have a profound effect on society. So, coinciding with the growth of the fledgling automobile industry, he opened a car dealership in Elmira, New York, the American Motor Car Sales Company, selling the very popular Overland brand. Following the election of Herbert Hoover to the Presidency of the United States, in March of 1930 Willys was appointed the first U.S. Ambassador to Poland, serving until May of 1932, when he returned to Toledo to run the troubled company. The Great Depression of the 1930s saw numerous carmakers go out of business and the Willys enterprises went into bankruptcy reorganization in 1933. 

   After having to cut production of the expensive Knight-powered vehicles, Willys kept the company going with the bare bones Willys 77. He was heavily involved with the reorganization plan when he died suddenly of a heart attack in 1935. The company continued on going through the World War II years with the awarding of the open bid contract to build the GP (Jeep) for the military. After resuming production for the public in 1946, Willys chose to stick with its unique trucks for the civilian markets until 1951; its cars, made from 1951 to 1955, had little success, and the company refocused on its durable trucks. In 1953, Kaiser Corporation bought out Willys-Overland Motors, and renamed it Willys Motors Company. In 1963 the company re-organized, becoming Kaiser-Jeep Corporation, and the Willys name disappeared into history



Sources : www.allpar.com
www.automotivehalloffame.org