Kehrl. Howard H.
Howard H. Kehrl was elected vice chairman of General Motors at a meeting of the Board of Directors on September 8, 1980 and assumed the post February 1, 1981. He served in that position until December 31, 1986. As vice chairman, Kehrl had jurisdiction over the Corporation's Technical Staffs, Operating Staffs, and Public Affairs Groups. He also served as a member of the corporation’s ten policy groups and its Finance, Executive, and Administration committees.
Kehrl was born on February 2, 1923, in Detroit. He attended Wayne State University and graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology with a bachelor of science degree and the University of Notre Dame's Midshipmen's School in 1944 as part of the Naval Officers Training Program. He received a Master of Science degree in engineering mechanics from the University of Notre Dame in 1948. While at Notre Dame, he also taught engineering subjects.
Kehrl joined General Motors in 1948 as a college graduate in training with the Research Laboratories and a year later he became a research engineer. He was transferred to the Cadillac Motor Car Division Tank Plant in Cleveland in 1951 as a senior project engineer and later was appointed assistant staff engineer.
In 1954, Kehrl joined the engineering department of Chevrolet Central Office in Detroit and subsequently served as development engineer, design engineer, and director of the Engineering Laboratories. During that period, he spent a year at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on a Sloan Fellowship, achieving his master's degree in industrial management.
Kehrl was appointed manager of quality control at Chevrolet in 1961. He was transferred to Oldsmobile as assistant chief engineer in 1964 and was named chief engineer on May 1, 1969. Kehrl was appointed general manager of Oldsmobile on May 25, 1972, and was elected a vice president of General Motors and named to the Administration Committee on June 5, 1972.
On November 5, 1973, Kehrl was appointed group executive in charge of the Car and Truck Group. One year later, he became executive vice president in charge of the General Motors technical and planning staffs and was elected to the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee. He was given added responsibility for the Overseas Group in August, 1978, and on August 27, 1979, was elected to the Finance Committee. Two years later, he was elected vice chairman in a major restructuring of the General Motors leadership.
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