The Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild: An Illustrated History

About this book

The Fisher Body Craftsmans Guild was a national auto design competition sponsored by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors. This competition was for teenagers to compete for college scholarships by designing and building scale model dream cars. Held from the 1930s through the 1960s it helped identify and nurture a whole generation of designers and design executives. This richly illustrated book presents the history of the Fisher Body Craftsmans Guild from its inception as a philanthropic project by the Fisher family during the Great Depression to its expansion overseas and finally to its end in 1968. Many former participants in this famous model building and design competition share their memories and photographs of their models some of which are startlingly inventive even when viewed today. Virgil M. Exner Jr. Charles M. Jordan Robert W. Henderson Robert A. Cadaret Richard Arbib Elia Russ Russinoff Galen Wickersham Ronald C. Hill Edward F. Taylor George R. Chartier Charles W. Pelly Gary Graham Charles A. Gibilterra E. Arthur Russell William A. Moore Terry R. Henline Paul Tatseos Allen T. Weideman Kenneth J. Dowd Stuart Shuster John M. Mellberg Harry E. Schoepf and Ronald J. Will are among those designers and design executives who participated in the Guild. The book also describes many aspects of the miniature model Napoleonic Coach and other scale model cars the students designed.