Gerald C. Meyers, C.E.O. Who Paved Way for the S.U.V., Dies at 94

Gerald C. Meyers, a former chief govt of the American Motors Corporation who helped spark the nation’s obsession with sport utility autos and oversaw the event of among the quirkiest automobiles of the Seventies, died on June 19 at his dwelling in West Bloomfield, Mich. He was 94.

His dying was introduced by his daughter Susan Meyers.

Mr. Meyers joined American Motors in 1962, after stints with Ford and Chrysler, and rose by way of the ranks as AMC fought to outlive in a market dominated by his former employers and General Motors, the so-called Big Three; on the time, they collectively produced 9 out of each 10 automobiles bought within the United States.

In 1970, as a senior manufacturing govt, Mr. Meyers was given the duty of evaluating a potential acquisition of Kaiser Jeep. He suggested AMC’s board in opposition to it, noting the model’s critical manufacturing inefficiencies. But the board proceeded anyway — and put Mr. Meyers in cost.

To attraction to extra customers, he upgraded current Jeeps with higher engines, suspensions and interiors, and directed the event of a brand new wagon, the Jeep Cherokee. Sales quickly surged, steadying AMC’s shaky funds and driving client curiosity in roomy off-road autos.

Mr. Meyers was quickly promoted to AMC’s high growth govt. He led the design of a compact automotive that wouldn’t go away occupants feeling cramped, an effort that resulted within the Pacer: a brief, large four-passenger automotive with oddly curved rear home windows.

The Pacer’s glass-bubble look drew joking comparisons to the flying area automobiles of the TV cartoon present “The Jetsons,” though Motor Trend journal known as it “the freshest, most creative, most people-oriented auto to be born in the U.S. in 15 years.” Other offbeat automobiles adopted, together with one which married Jeep parts with a automotive physique — the AMC Eagle, the primary passenger automotive with all-wheel drive made within the United States.

Mr. Meyers, at 48, was named chief govt in 1977, when AMC was struggling, controlling simply 2 % of the U.S. market. At 6 toes 2 inches tall, with the construct of the previous faculty soccer participant he was and the seems of a Hollywood main man, he reduce an imposing determine. He was often known as an analytical but demanding supervisor — a distinction to his brash, tough-talking rival Lee Iacocca, who was scrambling to avoid wasting Chrysler.

“My way of doing things is different,” Mr. Meyers advised The Detroit Free Press that yr. “I do not intend to do things the way they were done before. I intend to strike out in other directions and break some new ground.”

AMC reported document income in his second yr on the helm, however when the U.S. economic system slumped in 1979, banks declined to offer AMC new loans. Mr. Meyers sought a companion and located one within the French automaker Renault, which purchased a stake in AMC for $150 million (about $670 million right now).

AMC began promoting Renault automobiles, and the 2 corporations started collectively growing a brand new compact sedan to be known as the Alliance.

But AMC’s troubles continued. In 1982, Renault put in a brand new administration staff, and Mr. Meyers retired at 53. Chrysler acquired AMC in 1987, disbanding most of its operations however preserving the Jeep model.

Mr. Meyers then started instructing at his alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. He wrote two books on company disaster administration, one co-written along with his daughter Susan. From 1991 to 2017 he taught on the Ross School of Business on the University of Michigan.

He relaxed by crusing a catamaran. “If there was a breeze, and it got up on one hull, he was happy,” Susan Meyers mentioned.

Mr. Meyers’s impression on the business can nonetheless be seen right now. Cars with all-wheel drive make up a worthwhile area of interest for manufacturers like Subaru and Audi. The Pacer achieved cult fame, having appeared as the powder-blue experience of Mike Myers’s character within the two “Wayne’s World” motion pictures. And Americans’ fondness for Jeep-like autos hasn’t relented. Today half of all autos bought within the United States are categorized as S.U.V.s.

Gerald Carl Meyers was born on Dec. 5, 1928, in Buffalo. His father, Meyer Smuzek, was an immigrant from Poland who labored in New York City’s garment district earlier than shifting to Buffalo, the place he modified his final title to Meyers and opened an upscale tailoring store. Gerald’s mom, Berenice Meyers — her surname at start was the identical as her married title — was an opera singer.

The younger Mr. Meyers skipped two grades in elementary college, graduated from highschool at 15 and talked his manner right into a job parking automobiles at a storage despite the fact that he didn’t know easy methods to drive. “I banged up a few,” he laughed in a house video. After a yr at Canisius College in Buffalo, he transferred to Carnegie Mellon — then known as Carnegie Technical Institute —the place he captained the soccer staff. After graduating in 1950, he was invited to check out for the Baltimore Colts however determined he’d endured sufficient damaged noses and bones, Susan Meyers mentioned.

Mr. Meyers landed a administration coaching job at Ford. But when the Korean War began, he entered an Air Force officer coaching program and served as a lieutenant in Greenland. After returning dwelling, he acquired a grasp’s diploma from Carnegie Tech in 1954, then discovered a job at Chrysler, the place he typically wore fits and coats made by his father.

At 26, he wrote out his life objectives on a sheet of paper. He needed to marry by the age of 30 and have two youngsters by 33 and a 3rd by 35. He needed to make $30,000 a yr by age 45 (the equal about $340,000 right now) and $50,000 by 55, and he listed all of the positions he thought he’d want to achieve on the best way to changing into a company officer.

While working at Chrysler, Mr. Meyers requested his roommate if he knew any ladies he might date. The roommate pulled a crumpled slip of paper out of the trash with the variety of Barbara Jacob, a purchaser at a division retailer. They married in 1958, had three youngsters and ultimately moved to Bloomfield Township, a rich suburb of Detroit.

His spouse died in 2009, and his son, Andrew, died in 2019. In addition to his daughter Susan, he’s survived by one other daughter, Nancy Meyers, and a grandson.

Susan Meyers recalled that her father’s regular method by no means appeared to waver. When she as soon as crashed a Pacer that he had leased for her, he mentioned nothing, she recalled, and a brand new Pacer merely arrived about two weeks later. “I think he thought totaling the car was its own punishment,” she mentioned.

Eventually, although, he was considerably bothered by the S.U.V. craze that he had helped set in movement. In a column he wrote for The New York Times in 2000, he lamented the large dimension of the gas-guzzling S.U.V.s that Detroit was then producing.

“I feel like Dr. Frankenstein these days, having pumped life into a corpse only to face the horror of its evolution,” he wrote. If the business wasn’t going to return to creating smaller fashions, he added, “maybe it would have been better to let Jeep’s corpse rest undisturbed.”