Practically coming from nothing, John Zachary DeLorean, through sheer grit, brilliance, and excellence, rose to the pinnacle of leadership and management in the world’s best automobile companies. DeLorean’s vision was immense. His subordinates revered him, while his superiors often feel intimidated by his abilities. Also, DeLorean was unconventional but resolute. A principle that worked perfectly for him, giving him a meteoric rise to top management level in a great company like General Motors.
At a relatively young age, DeLorean had become a serially successful enigmatic man, and no one could have predicted his fall. It is even more compelling, since whatever he touched usually turned gold. But all that changed when he 'touched' marriage and his eponymous enterprise, DeLorean Motor Company (DMC). The latter in particular signaled the beginning of the end for the purportedly hubris man, as everything that could and couldn’t go wrong went wrong with the DMC. Here, we bring you more details about the man at the center of it all, the incredible John DeLorean.
10 Romanian Heritage
DeLorean was born on the 6th of January, 1925. His father was Zachary DeLorean, a factory worker, who had immigrated to the United States from Romania when he was twenty years old, while his mother, Kathryn Pribak, was from Austria-Hungary.
After DeLorean's birth, his father Zachary DeLorean was employed to work as a union organizer at the Ford factory in nearby Highland Park, while the mother later worked at the Carboloy Products Division of General Electric. John DeLorean was the first of the union’s four sons, but his parent would eventually divorce in 1942.
9 Schooled On Scholarship
DeLorean was a top-level student all through his school days. Although he attended Detroit’s public grade schools, he made enough good grades that earned him admission into Cass Technical High School (a school for Detroit honor students) where he majored in the electrical curriculum.
DeLorean excelled greatly at Cass, earning him a scholarship to study at Lawrence Technological University, formerly located at Highland Park, a Detroit suburb. Studying Industrial Engineering, DeLorean’s performance was so good he got elected into the school’s honor society.
8 Served In The Military
Hitler had finalized his plans and on the 1st of September 1939, Germany invaded Poland, an act which made France and Britain declare war on Germany, marking the start of the Second World War. The war raged on without the involvement of the Americans, but all that would eventually change when the U.S. declared war on Japan on the 7th of December 1941, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japanese troops.
Conscripted, DeLorean was drafted into the Army in 1943, serving for three years before receiving an honorable discharge.
7 Sold Insurance
While DeLorean is widely revered for his automotive engineering prowess, he had earlier in his life dabbled in insurance, and was successful at it. After serving in the military, DeLorean returned to Lawrence to finish his academics. Upon graduating with a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering, instead of working an engineering job, he opted to sell a life insurance product designed for engineers.
Although DeLorean made huge sales, however, he didn’t find the job interesting enough, hence he quit, moving to Factory Equipment Corporation.
6 Serial Inventor
During an interview, DeLorean alluded to having more than 200 patents. That's a massive catalog, and it depicts how innovative the American was. His exploit as a GM executive is unprecedented and remains a reference point for excellence in automotive circles to date. He implemented several daring changes that proved his genius.
Also, DeLorean is credited with creating a host of automotive features that are still relevant today, and some of them include overhead-cam engines, turn signal, concealed windshield wipers, and vertically stacked headlights, among others.
5 Youngest Division Head In GM’s History
In 1961, while at General Motors, DeLorean was made Pontiac division’s chief engineer. It was a challenging role that brought out the best in the American engineer. DeLorean made a series of changes that brought huge success to Pontiac. For this, in 1965, with a plethora of promising and more senior engineers ahead of him, DeLorean was promoted, becoming the youngest general manager of Pontiac at just 40 years, a record.
He also became Chevrolet’s youngest manager four years later, and ultimately became GM’s North American car and truck operations head in 1972.
4 Charged With Cocaine Trafficking
John DeLorean was dealt some huge legal battles in life. It all started in October 1982 when James Hoffman, an FBI informant, solicited DeLorean as a financier for the sale of 55 pounds of cocaine valued at about $24 million. Notably, DeLorean had a clean criminal record before that, nonetheless, he was arrested and charged with cocaine trafficking.
However, for barely knowing Hoffman, DeLorean was able to defend himself under the procedural defense of police entrapment. Therefore, he was acquitted in August 1984 by reason of entrapment.
3 Married Four Times
On the 3rd of September 1954, DeLorean married his first wife Elizabeth Higgins, but they were separated through a divorce in 1969. In the same year, he married Kelly Harmon, the sister of actor Mark Harmon. However, by 1972 they had gone separate ways through a divorce.
American former fashion model and talk show host Cristina Ferrare was next, but the marriage also ended in divorce in 1985. Nonetheless, DeLorean would find love again in Sally Baldwin, his fourth wife, which he remained married to till his death.
2 Went Bankrupt
DeLorean would eventually declare personal bankruptcy in 1999. This was inevitable following the crash of DeLorean Motor Company and the attendant legal battles that ensued. Notably, the collapse of the company had led directly to the filing of more than 40 legal cases against DeLorean, all defended using his money, literally exhausting his reserves.
Left with no choice, DeLorean sold his 434-acre estate in Bedminster to Donald Trump in 2000, then had to live in a condominium in New Jersey.
1 Born-Again
From being so infallible, so full of life, living, and having the best things life had to offer, DeLorean all of a sudden had become a shadow of his glorious past. In Cristina Ferrare’s words, “DeLorean was so charismatic, so worldly, so smart, and handsome,” she couldn’t help but love him.
Ferrare was with him during the cocaine entrapment saga, a situation that shook them so hard they went in search of divinity. As documented in DeLorean’s autobiography, due to the cocaine issue, both DeLorean and Ferrare became born-again Christians.