Alex Tremulis

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Alex Tremulis
Born
Alexander Sarantos Tremulis

(1914-01-23)January 23, 1914
Chicago, Illinois
DiedDecember 29, 1991(1991-12-29) (aged 77)
Ventura, California
CitizenshipUnited States
OccupationIndustrial designer
Signature
Alex Tremulis' signature written in or after 1966

Alexander Sarantos Tremulis (January 23, 1914 – December 29, 1991) was a Greek-American industrial designer in the North American automotive industry.

Tucker Car Corporation and Ford Motor Company
before establishing a consulting firm.

Early career

Tremulis was the son of

Cord 810 and 812 series, as well as a custom Duesenberg roadster having both convertible and hardtop options. In 1936, he was named Chief Stylist for Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg, and remained in that role until the company failed in 1937.[5]

Tremulis briefly worked for General Motors before moving to Briggs-Le Baron, a custom coachbuilder for Chrysler at the time. In 1938 he worked for Custom Motors in Beverly Hills, California, that made unique cars for movie stars. He was also a consultant for Crosley and American Bantam in 1939. His designs for American Bantam remained in production until the firm switched over completely to the production of military Jeeps prior to World War II. Returning to Briggs in 1939, he worked with Werner Gubitz and Howard "Dutch" Darrin to design the production versions of the Packard Clipper. He was also the creative source for the 1941 Chrysler "Thunderbolt" concept car. His contributions to these two models helped establish styling trends that would influence automobile designs after World War II.

Air Corps concepts

After

Dyna-Soar, a gliding re-entry space vehicle. While at the Air Corps, he made the first speculative drawings of what extraterrestrial life forms would use as transportation to visit the Earth. His concept drawings were the first saucer shaped spacecraft drawings documented.[6]

Later career

After the War, Tremulis worked with the design firm of Tammen & Denison until Preston Tucker hired him to design the

1948 Tucker Sedan
. As Phil Egan described in his book, "Design and Destiny: The Making of the Tucker Automobile", it was Tremulis who was primarily responsible for guiding the fabrication of the "Tin Goose" to conclusion. The first production Tucker automobiles were powered by a converted Franklin helicopter engine supplied by Air Cooled Motors. Carl Doman, an engineer with Air Cooled, built a higher horsepower engine, 275 horsepower vs 166 horsepower, but was voted down by management who felt the car was fast enough with the stock powerplant. The higher horsepower engine was to be put on the shelf for a future model called the Talisman, of which both Alex Tremulis and his assistant, Phil Egan, would eventually draw up proposals for. Those designs never came to fruition.

In 1957, as a

Seattle World's Fair
.

Tremulis left Ford in 1963 to found his own consulting firm in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Among Tremulis' last designs were the 1978 to 1987 Subaru BRAT.

Tremulis served as a consultant for the 1988 film Tucker: The Man and His Dream in which he was played by Elias Koteas. He was also a frequent contributor to "Road & Track" magazine.

Death

Tremulis died on December 29, 1991. He was buried at Ivy Lawn Memorial Park in Ventura, California.

Awards

  • 1982 — Inducted into the Automobile Hall of Fame.[7]
  • 1987 — Honored by the
    Tucker
    , as one of the "significant automobiles of the past half century."

See also

References

  1. ^ Matthews, Nigel. "Great designer came up with Thunderbolt", The Province, December 08, 2006 Archived 2012-10-25 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on June 26, 2007.
  2. ^ Tucker Club's Tremulis page Archived 2007-05-23 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on June 26, 2007.
  3. ^ Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) Tremulis page Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on July 26, 2007.
  4. ^ Article in Los Angeles Times, Retrieved on September 23, 2009.
  5. ^ "Alex Tremulis". Lemay Museum. Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  6. ^ "Alexander Sarantos Tremulis". Find a Grave. 2 October 2001. Retrieved 22 June 2010.
  7. ^ "Distinguished Service Citation". Automotive Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on 15 May 2011. Retrieved 22 June 2010.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alex_Tremulis&oldid=1147913481"