Knudsen, Semon E.
Semon E. Knudsen was born October 2, 1912, in Buffalo, New York. He was the only son of the William S. Knudsen, who was the ninth president of General Motors from 1937 until 1940 when he resigned to direct industrial production in the national defense program during World War II. The younger Knudsen and his father were very close and it was from his father that he received the nickname "Bunkie,” a World War I term, short for "bunk-mates" or close friends.
Semon Knudsen displayed an early interest in everything mechanical and automobiles in particular. His father answered his plea for a car at the age of 14 with an automobile — in hundreds of pieces. To drive it, he had to assemble it — and he did.
Knudsen graduated from Detroit Country Day School and attended Dartmouth College for one year before entering Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he graduated in 1936.
He worked for the next three years in Detroit machine shops and joined General Motors in 1939 with the manufacturing staff of the Pontiac Motor Division. During the next ten years, he served in several assignments on this staff, including chief inspector of the defense plant, car assembly superintendent and assistant general master mechanic.
In 1949, Knudsen was named director of the General Motors Process Development Section in Detroit. He moved to Indianapolis in 1953 as assistant manufacturing manager of aircraft engines at the Allison Division and a year later was named Allison's manufacturing manager.
In March 1955, Knudsen was named general manager of the Detroit Diesel Engine Division of General Motors, a post he held until returning to Pontiac Motor Division as its general manager in July 1956, when he was elected a GM vice president.
As Pontiac general manager, Knudsen guided development of the Tempest, a leader in the smaller car field since its introduction in 1960. Much of the increased sales success of Pontiac during this period can be directly attributed to styling and engineering improvements made under Knudsen's leadership plus the energetic attention he devoted to strengthening Pontiac dealerships and the national sales organization. He brought a number of rising stars to Pontiac including Elliott “Pete” Estes from Oldsmobile as chief engineer and John Z. DeLorean, who he hired away from Packard. The goal of the new engineering team was to create high performance versions of Pontiac’s existing models. The Pontiac Bonneville and the "wide-track Pontiacs" came from this effort. Pontiac also became heavily involved in stock car racing under Knudsen. These events led to Pontiac's new-found performance image and eventually led to increased sales with the division reaching to third place in industry standings by 1962.
Having saved Pontiac from folding and improving Chevrolet as well, Knudsen was on a steady rise to the top. He was next promoted to group vice president in charge of the Overseas and Canadian Group in July 1965. At that time, he was also elected to the Board of Directors. He was give further responsibility over the Dayton, Household Appliance and Engine groups in 1966.
Bunkie Knudsen believed that he was on his way to being elected GM president. He was executive vice president in charge of the Overseas, Canadian, Non-Automotive and Defense Group when Ed Cole was handed the position that he desired in 1967. Believing that his opportunity had passed, Knudsen resigned from the corporation amidst some controversy to become president of Ford Motor Company shortly thereafter. Thus, he completed the circle that his father William had begun when the elder Knudsen left Ford to join General Motors in 1921.
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