David Dunbar Buick

David Dunbar Buick (September 17, 1854 – March 5, 1929) was a Scottish-born American inventor, widely known for founding the Buick Motor Company. He headed this company and its predecessor from 1899–1906, thereby helping to create one of the most successful nameplates in United States motor vehicle history.

Early life, family and education Buick was born in Arbroath, Scotland to Alexander Buick (a carpenter, d. 1860) and Jane Roger Buick (a butcher's assistant). In 1856, he and his family moved to Detroit, Michigan, when he was two years old. He left school in 1869, to help his widowed mother.

Career Buick worked for a company that made plumbing goods. When the company ran into trouble in 1882, he and a partner purchased it. At this time, Buick began to show his promise as an inventor, producing many innovations including a lawn sprinkler and a method for permanently coating cast iron with vitreous enamel which allowed the production of "white" bathtubs at lower cost; this method is still in use for enameling cast iron baths, though the market for such tubs has declined. With the combination of Buick's innovation and his partner's sound business management, the company became quite successful.

Buick Motor Company

During the 1890s, Buick developed an interest in internal combustion engines and began experimenting with them. He was spending little time on the plumbing business, and his business partner became impatient with him. The partnership was dissolved in 1899, and the company was sold. .

After unsuccessful investments in California oil and Florida land, and an attempt (with his son Tom) to manufacture carburetors, Buick made a brief return to the automotive business in 1921, as president of the short-lived Lorraine Motors, and in 1923 with the design of the Dunbar, an automobile prototype.

In an interview with historian Bruce Catton in 1928, Buick admitted that he was almost completely broke, unable to even afford a telephone, and worked as an instructor at the Detroit School of Trades. and was buried at Woodmere Cemetery in Detroit, Michigan.

Commentator Theodore F. McManus noted that "Fame beckoned to David Buick. He sipped from the cup of greatness, and then spilled what it held."