John North Willys

John North Willys (; October 25, 1873 – August 26, 1935) was an American automotive pioneer and diplomat. His company, Willys-Overland Motors, became the second largest carmaker in the United States after the Ford Motor Company.

Early life Born in Canandaigua, New York, Willys began selling bicycles in his hometown and within a few years, expanded into manufacturing his own line of bicycles.

Career

Willys' interest in cars came after an 1899 trip to Cleveland, where he saw an automobile for the first time, and knew they would quickly replace bicycles. Willys returned to New York and opened his first car dealership in Elmira, New York, selling Overland Automobile brand automobiles.

Personal life The mausoleum of John North WillysWell respected in the business community, John Willys was a strong supporter of the United States Republican Party who had been an Ohio delegate to the 1916 Republican National Convention. Following the election of Herbert Hoover to the Presidency of the United States, in March 1930 Willys was appointed the first United States Ambassador to Poland, serving until May 1932.

Willys and his wife, Irene Van Wie Willys (1877–1945) had one daughter, Virginia Clayton (1910–1981), who married a wealthy Argentine rancher, Luis Marcelino de Aguirre, in 1929 when she was 18. They divorced and in 1933 married José de Landa of Paris (1899–1961), son of a onetime Governor of Mexico’s Federal District, Don Guillermo de Landa y Escandon. She married a third time to Wilson C. Lucom (d. 2006).

The following year, John Willys and his wife of thirty-seven years divorced. In 1934, he remarried to Florence Elizabeth (nee Dingler) Dolan (1896–1983).

Death He died on August 26, 1935, of a stroke after recovering completely from a previous heart attack that he had in May, at his home in The Bronx, New York City. He was interred in the Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York.