Lee Iacocca has died at the age of 94, after a career that saw him help to realize the Ford Mustang and keep Chrysler from going into bankruptcy as the company’s CEO, reports said Tuesday.
The Washington Post quoted Iacocca’s daughter Lia saying that he died following complications from Parkinson’s disease. He died in Bel Air, Calif.
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CNN cited Iacocca’s youngest daughter as it confirmed his death.
Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pa., the son of Italian immigrants in 1924, and began his career in automotives with the Ford Motor Company in 1946.
After graduating from Princeton, he first worked as an engineering trainee in Dearborn, Mich., but ended up transferring to a sales job in Chester, Pa., the Post reported.
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Robert S. McNamara, the head of the Ford Division, caught sight of Iacocca and brought him to company headquarters in Dearborn, Mich., the Los Angeles Times reported.
With Ford, he would help to realize the Mustang, a successor to the Ford Falcon.
Henry Ford II, grandson of the inventor of the Model T, was hesitant to put money behind the Mustang but the car would see over 400,000 sold in its first year.
Iacocca would eventually ascend to the position of company president before being fired by Ford II.
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He later took up the job of chairman at the Chrysler company.
With Chrysler, Iacocca helped to stave off a company bankruptcy thanks to $1.5 billion in loan guarantees from the U.S. government, the Post reported.
While serving as chairman, tens of thousands of Chrysler employees would lose their jobs, factories would close and executives would see their compensation slashed.
Chrysler would pay back its loans to the U.S. government as Iacocca launched vehicles such as the minivan and the K-car line, the Post added.
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Iacocca would also gain new prominence, appearing in Chrysler TV ads starting in the 1980s.
He became known for his slogan, “if you can find a better car, buy it!”
Iacocca, his autobiography, would hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list three weeks after its release on Oct. 15, 1984.
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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles issued a statement saying the company was “saddened” by the news of Iacocca’s passing.
“He played a historic role in steering Chrysler through crisis and making it a true competitive force,” the statement said.
“He was one of the great leaders of our company and the auto industry as a whole.”
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