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EDWARD NICHOLAS COLE
1909-1977
BY ELLIOTT M. ESTES
EDWARD N. COLE, retired President of General Motors Corpora-
tion, died at the controls of his private plane in a crash near
Kalamazoo, Michigan, on May 2, 1977. Flying alone in bad
weather, he was enroute to Checker Motor Corporation, where he
was redesigning the company's taxi cabs with the same enthusiasm
and innovative spirit that marked his forty-four year career at GM.
At the time of his death at age sixty-seven, Ed Cole was Chairman
and Chief Executive of Checker Motor Corporation and Chairman
of International Husky, Inc., an air-freight venture he had headed
since his retirement from GM in 1974.
To the end, Ed Cole never lost his insatiable appetite for any-
thing mechanical, his enthusiasm for challenge, his constant search
for new ideas—better ways of doing things, or his ability to "sell" a
pet project with missionary persuasiveness.
Before his death, he was seeking to raise additional capital to
launch at International Husky, Inc., an innovative air-freight sys-
tem using seventy-five jumbo jets, a nationwide network of auto-
mated terminals, and computers to control flights and cargo loads.
Ed Cole was born September 17, 1909, at Marne, a small town in
southwestern Michigan, about fifty miles north of the field where
his twin-engine plane nosed in. A farm boy, he worked hard at
chores. Milking cows and delivering fresh milk to community
residents was a major job during high school days. During winters,
with his growing interest in motors and electricity, he built and sold
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radios. In the summers, he sold Fordson tractors by giving farmers
in-the-~eld demonstrations. He also rebuilt two old cars, becoming
at age sixteen one of Marne's rare two-car owners.
Originally, Ed Cole wanted to be a lawyer and attended Grand
Rapids Junior College. But one summer he took a job with an
automobile supply company and got his first taste of what the
industry was like. This led him to enroll in General Motors Institute
(GMI) in 1930, a co-op school where he was sponsored by GM'S
Cadillac Division.
Because of his talent, he was taken from GMI before graduation
and assigned to a special Cadillac engineering project. He ad-
vanced through several jobs at Cadillac and in 1943 became Chief
Design Engineer responsible for U.S. Army light tanks and combat
vehicles. With the war over, Cadillac returned to civilian produc-
tion, and Ed Cole was promoted to Chiel Engineer in 1946 and
Works Manager in 1950. With the outbreak of the Korean conflict,
he was named manager of the Cleveland tank plant, and he got it
into production three months ahead of schedule.
Throughout his life, associates marveled at how fast the ener-
getic Ed Cole worked. "Whatever he's doing, he's a man in a hurry,"
said one. "Ed has just one speed," said another, "full throttle." His
desire to speed up the action was clearly demonstrated when he
visited the new Chevrolet Engineering Center in 1956. Noticing the
new escalators in the building, he had their speed increased about
thirty percent. "No sense in wasting people's time when they're
riding," Cole said.
Promoted to Chief Engineer at Chevrolet in 1952, by the surr~-
mer of 1956 Cole had been promoted again to be Chevrolet
General Manager and a Vice-President of GM. In 1961, he was
elected to the GM Boarcl of Directors and named a corporate Group
Vice-President. In 1965 he became an Executive Vice-President,
and by the time of his retirement, seven years later, he was
Chairman of the Corporation's Administration and Executive
Committees and served on a third policymaking body, the Finance
Committee.
When he retired from GM, Ed Cole held eighteen separate
patents and was widely recognized as one of the industry's most
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brilliant and innovative leaders. Even from the President's of Lice on
the fourteenth Door of the GM Building, he took an active, personal
role in GM'S products and its engineering. "I like to stay close to the
hardware," he once explained. "That's where the action is."
Ed Cole was associated with many of the industry's most impor-
tant projects while he was at GM. Not all of them were successful,
but none lacked daring and imagination. Among his most impor-
tant"credits" were:
· A major role in the development of the Cadillac short-stroke
VS engine.
· The moving force behind the innovative, rear-engined, air-
cooled Corvair.
· A hand in the development of the Corvette sports car.
· A prime mover behind the Air Cushion Restraint System.
· A major proponent of the Rotary or Wankel engine.
· A major role in the development of the catalytic converter to
control exhaust emissions.
It is this last development which automotive history will likely
deem the most important. Trusting Ed Cole's vision and courage,
GM took the lead in 1970 in lowering engine compression ratios and
designing for unleaded gasoline to be ready for the day when
catalytic converters would be used to control automotive pollution.
Many in and outside the industry and more than a few within GM
doubted that day would ever come. But it did when the 1975
models were introduced, enabling manufacturers to reduce emis-
sions and improve gas mileage at the same time.
Today, more sophisticated catalytic systems are being developed
to reduce emissions even further without serious losses in fuel
economy. If Ed Cole needed a monument—which he doesn't—I
couldn't think of a better one than this important new technology.
Ed Cole was a member of many professional, business, and
charitable organizations. He was a Member of the Society of
Automotive Engineers, Engineering Society of Detroit, the Detroit
Board of Commerce, and the Economic Club of Detroit. He was
active in the National Academy of Engineering, serving as a
.
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Member and then Chairman of the NAE Finance Committee; on the
National Research Council Assembly of Engineering, Executive
Committee in 197~75; and as NAE Treasurer and a Member of
both the NAE Council and Executive Committee from 1974 until his
death.
Ed Cole did contribute a great deal to the auto industry and to
the communities in w hich he lived. Among the things he left
behind `~as a motto that summed up his attitude about innovation
and the need to change. It will serve other unordinary, uniquely
gifted people who follow him as well as it did Ed.
"If we find a better way," he said, "let's kick hell out of the status
quo. The fact 'we have always done it this way' is the best reason I
know to take a particularly close look at a system or procedure."
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
nae finance
