Owen Ray Skelton

Owen Ray Skelton (February 9, 1886 – July 20, 1969) was an American automotive industry engineer and automobile designer. Along with Fred M. Zeder and Carl Breer, he was one of the core group who formed the present day Chrysler Corporation. He made material contributions to Tourist Automobile Company, Allis-Chalmers, Studebaker, and was the main engineer behind the Chrysler Airflow automobile. He was elected to the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.

Early life Skelton was born on February 9, 1886, and went by the nickname "Skelt" from when he was a child. His family lived in Edgerton, Ohio, at the time of his birth. His father was a shopkeeper selling horse harnesses and saddlery. Skelton worked as a shop apprentice at his father's shop part-time in his youth. He went to the local public schools as a child and after graduating from high school he enrolled at Ohio State University. He graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering when he was nineteen.

Career From 1905 until 1907, Skelton's first job in the automotive industry was with the Pope-Toledo automobile factory in Toledo, Ohio, noted for their gasoline-powered engine technology. He advanced to the design drafting department at Detroit's Packard Motor Car Company. As he became more experienced with expertise, Skelton simultaneously gained the reputation of being a design analyst who understood the entire transmission of a car, and a master specialist in rear axles and gear boxes. The money-losing Studebaker needed to produce a speedy design for a new, inexpensive, mass-market automobile that could compete with the two new automobile conglomerates, Ford Motor Company and General Motors (GM). The struggling firm set up a design shop in Newark, and gave a relatively free hand to the shop's three principals, Zeder, Skelton, and Carl Breer. The threesome became known as "The Three Musketeers" for their design work of the 1918 Studebaker. ZSB failed to obtain financing to complete the design work as an independent firm, but news of their work reached the ears of an aggressive car making executive, Maxwell's chief executive officer (CEO) Walter Chrysler. This contact proved to be decisive to Skelton's career.

Chrysler obtained financing in early 1923 to merge Maxwell, the Detroit-based Chalmers Motor Car Company, and ZSB Engineering. The merged firm's operations were consolidated in Detroit in June 1923, initially under the name of "Maxwell-Chalmers." With ZSB's six-cylinder engine design as an integral element, Maxwell-Chalmers's cars sold well, and the firm underwent rapid expansion under CEO Chrysler's leadership. In 1925 Maxwell-Chalmers became the Chrysler Corporation.

Chrysler Corporation As a chief design engineer for Chrysler, Skelton is credited with leading the development of a rubber engine mount system for cars. Directed to develop ideas to reduce motor vibration, Skelton's team conceptualized more than 1,000 separate ideas; This Skelton/Chrysler engineering innovation was adopted throughout the automobile industry.

Skelton also led the innovative development of four-wheel hydraulic brakes as a standard feature on Chrysler cars. His work continued to be significant in development of the rear-engine, all-steel-body Chrysler cars developed through the 1930s and into the postwar years, as Chrysler took its place as a full-fledged competitor to Ford and GM. Skelton was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2002.