Gordon M. Buehrig

Inducted 1989

Distinguished Service Citation Award 1976

Created some of the finest car designs the industry has ever produced including the regal Duesenberg Model J and the legendary Cord 810.

Contributed his design talents to Duesenberg, Inc. (1929-1933), Auburn Automobile Company (1933-1936), Raymond Loewy’s industrial design firm (1944-1948), and Ford Motor Company (1951-1965).

Influenced a new generation of top designers as a teacher at Art Center College of Design from 1965 through 1970.

If Gordon Buehrig could dream it, some fortunate individual could drive it. Buehrig’s first design experience was at General Motors Art & Color Section, but he found creative freedom in 1929 when he was hired as chief body designer at Duesenberg Inc. In an atmosphere that permitted stylists to dream about line and form, then see their drawing-board ideas be put into production, Buehrig’s creativity flourished. He ushered in a new era in styling with designs that were instrumental in reshaping the automobile from its box-like carriage origins. Buehrig later saw many of his designs displayed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in a 1951 exhibit of rolling sculpture. Reflecting on his career at age 79, Buehrig said, I have a little talent in art, I can’t sing, I can’t dance and I play a lousy game of golf. But to me, autos are works of art and I consider myself an artist in that respect. I’m a sculptor of car bodies.

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Class of 1989

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