biography
| name: |
Knudsen, William S(ignius)
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originally Signius Wilhelm Paul Knudsen
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1879–1948)
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| biography:
| Industrialist and government official, born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Emigrating to America at 21, he mastered bicycle and auto-parts production, and when Ford purchased his auto-parts firm, he was soon running assembly-line production for Ford (1913–20). Hired by Ford's arch-rival Chevrolet in 1922, he was outselling Ford by 1927, and became president of General Motors in 1937. He resigned in 1940 to serve on the National Defense Advisory Commission, then with the Office of Production Management, expediting war-related production. He accepted an army commission as lieutenant general to supervise production for the War Department and Army Air Force (1942–5). After the war he worked with the Hupp Corporation. |
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