William C. Durant

CHESTERS!

General Motors

After Buick's great successes, Durant wondered, why not make a bigger and better car company out of many small ones? With this in mind, he purchased Cadillac in 1908, thus beginning General Motors. The company soon aquired many other companies including Pontiac and Oldsmobile. To buy all these companies, however, he took a lot of loans. When he was unable to pay them off, the bank took the company from him, ending his involvement with G.M. for the moment

General Motors' net worth is currently over 7.5 billion dollars.

Photo Credits:

• "William C. Durant." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nndb.com/people/949/000060769/>.
• "Story of William Crapo Durant, Founding Father of General Motors in Previous Edition." Story of William Crapo Durant, Founding Father of General Motors. 5 June 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://blog.car24h.org/story-of-william-crapo-durant-founding-father-of-general-motors-a1.html>.
• "William Crapo Durant in the 1920s." -GM PhotoStore. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.gmphotostore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=53217414>.

Photo Credits

"Story of William Crapo Durant, Founding Father of General Motors in Previous Edition." Story of William Crapo Durant, Founding Father of General Motors. 5 June 2011. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://blog.car24h.org/story-of-william-crapo-durant-founding-father-of-general-motors-a1.html>.

"William C. Durant." NNDB: Tracking the Entire World. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nndb.com/people/949/000060769/>.

"William Crapo Durant in the 1920s." -GM PhotoStore. Web. 14 Mar. 2012. <http://www.gmphotostore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=53217414>.

Buick

Durant did not like cars, because they were primitive and dangerous. At the time, people wanted the government to make laws to make cars safer. Durant saw the need and decided to not wait for the government so he used his salesman background to become manager at Buick. At that point, the fledgling company had only sold 37 cars. He took Buick to a car show in New York, coming out with orders for over 1,000 cars. Soon Buick became the largest car company in America, largely because of William Durant.

The Stock Market

In the '20s William Durant was one of the world's richest businessmen. During the crash of 1929, he poured his money into the stock market, trying desperately to stop the sliding stock prices. Sadly he failed. In 1936 he filed for bankruptcy, his only posessions were the clothes he was wearing. He had a stroke at age 80, which debilitated him untill he died in 1947 aged 85. Durant Park in Lansing, Michigan is named after him.

Family Life (Quick Facts)

• 2 wives
• 2 kids with first wife

His Own Company

By the time he was 25, in 1886, he started his first business, along with another guy named Josiah Dort. Only 4 years later, Durant-Dort Carrige led the Horse-Drawn Carrige Industry, with two million dollars in sales around the world. While he ran this company, he invented the car dealership as we know them today.

Early Life

William "Billy" Crapo Durant was born on December 8th, 1861, in Boston Massachusetts. His parents were William Durant and Rebecca Crapo. He dropped out of high school to work in his grandpa's lumber business. It seemed like he wouldn't amount to much, but his career was only beginning.

Bibliography

• "William C. Durant." NNDB. Web. 6 Mar. 2012. <http://www.nndb.com/people/949/000060769/>.
• "William C. Durant Biography - Facts, Birthday, Life Story - Biography.com." Famous Biographies & TV Shows - Biography.com. Web. 6 Mar. 2012. <http://www.biography.com/people/william-c-durant-9281982>.
• "Video: The Crash of 1929 | Watch American Experience Online | PBS Video." PBS.org. Web. 08 Mar. 2012. <http://video.pbs.org/video/1308436568>.
• "William C. Durant." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 June 2012. Web. 09 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_C._Durant>.
• "Buick History." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buick>.
• "Chevrolet." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 03 Aug. 2012. Web. 09 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet>.

William C. Durant

By Sean Bull

C. is for Crapo

Chevrolet

Durant had used a famous racer, Louis Chevrolet, to promote his cars when he worked for Buick. He remembered him when he was fired from General Motors and realized that Chevrolet could still be used for marketing. With this in mind, Billy and Louis started Chevrolet Motors in 1911. They had a disagreement in 1915 and Chevrolet quit, selling his stocks to Durant. Only one year later, Durant had made enough money to buy back General Motors.

One more thing...