Charles L. McCuen was the second man to hold the position of vice president and general manager of General Motors Research Laboratories.

McCuen was born in Stockton, California on May 22, 1892. For all practical purposes, his formal schooling ended at the 5th grade, although he resumed his education in 1911 at Polytechnic College of Engineering in Oakland, California, which presented him an honorary degree in 1934.

Before entering the automotive field, McCuen worked as a carpenter, machine designer and builder, locomotive maintenance man, paint can labeler, pottery company detailer and building designer. In 1911 he joined Cole-California Car Company and designed a five-passenger touring sedan, but the company ran out of money after producing only two or three vehicles.

He was a structural engineer for the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915 when a white Packard touring car on exhibit in a glass case lured him to Detroit where he joined Packard. There, he assisted the late Colonel Jesse Vincent on the first engine used in World War I by Eddie Rickenbacker in his record flights. As a tool to develop the 12-cylinder engine for aircraft usage, Packard built a special chassis, and with this experimental combination McCuen was able to lap the Sheepshead, Long Island racetrack faster than the race cars using it. After two years Packard President Henry B. Joy transferred McCuen to the Isko Refrigeration Company in Chicago as a vice president.

McCuen returned to the automotive industry engineering by way of Rickenbacker Motor Company in 1922 as an experimental engineer. Automotive engineers and historians have rated the Rickenbacker car as technically ahead of its time. It was the first mass produced American car with four-wheel brakes and featured flywheels at both ends of the engine for smooth running. As a race car, it held lap records at Indianapolis many years.

In 1926, McCuen joined GM's Oldsmobile Division in Lansing, Michigan where as advanced engine design engineer he developed the series "F" and "L" engines. He was promoted to chief engineer and director of engineering and in May 1932 was named technical assistant to the general manager of Oldsmobile and Buick divisions. In 1933 he was named Oldsmobile general manager and vice president. McCuen's version of how he got the top Oldsmobile job was as follows:

"Mr. (William S.) Knudsen called me at Oldsmobile and told me he had the job of selecting a new general manager. He asked me if I would like to be the next general manager. I told him I would like to try it. He said okay, I would be given the chance. He next said he didn't like red ink. With this, he said goodbye. And I never did show him any red ink . . ."

McCuen’s division was first with a completely automatic transmission, GM's Hydra-Matic that was introduced on 1940 model Oldsmobiles. The little group of engineers who originated the automatic transmission project acknowledge in later years that their innovation might have been bypassed, but McCuen's confidence and enthusiasm sold the concept to GM management. On his 80th birthday McCuen received from Hydra-Matic a small model of an automatic transmission inscribed, "In recognition of the conviction of a principle."

In August 1940, McCuen was named vice president in charge of GM Engineering Staff, coordinating the corporation's engineering policies during the critical World War II era. He served in an advisory capacity on the war metallurgy committee of the National Research Council and received the Army's Certificate of Merit for service as chairman of the advisory committee to the commanding general, Tank Automotive Center, Ordinance Department. He also continued development of automatic transmissions and promoted the torque converter that Buick used in an ordnance vehicle. In peacetime it was adapted to Buick and Chevrolet passenger cars.

As a practicing engineer, McCuen obtained 32 patents covering such items as spring suspensions, oil coolers, crankcase ventilation, radiator design and manifolds.

In 1947, McCuen succeeded Charles F. Kettering as vice president in charge of GM Research Laboratories where he directed a wide range of automotive, engineering and scientific developments. Among his achievements was refinement of the high compression automotive engine; the first experimental gas turbine passenger cars, buses and trucks in the United States; the Dodrill-GMR mechanical heart, the first device of its kind used as a human heart-substitute in surgery; the Electro-Stethograph for recording the human heart's inaudible sounds; and the Centrifilmer, a centrifical device that utilizes ultraviolet light to sterilize whole blood, plasma, serums, antitoxins and vaccines both in pharmaceutical research and production.

At the Research Laboratories, he also encouraged close cooperation between industry and technical colleges and universities, underwriting grants in support of basic science research and graduate fellowship programs. He sponsored a GM gift of $150,000 toward establishment and support of the machine computation laboratory at Wayne State University.

Charles L. McCuen retired early from General Motors in 1955 prompted by an accident he suffered test driving the Firebird I at the Milford Proving Ground. Fooled by the vehicle’s acceleration, he crashed through the guardrail on a banked track and narrowly escaped death. After the accident, he spent months in recovery and returned to work briefly before deciding to retire.

He died October 28, 1975 at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan after a long illness. He was 83.

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