William Boyer graduated from the Pratt Institute in 1950 and joined General Motors in the Experimental studio. In 1952, he moved to Ford Motor Company and began work designing the first Thunderbird. Over the years, he worked on Thunderbirds, becoming the Manager and Design Executive of the studio. In 1969/1970 he moved to the Lincoln Mercury Advanced studio and in 1973 was sent to Australia as Chief Designer. He returned to the U.S. and worked as director of the Advanced studio, Luxury and Intermediate vehicles, Design Services and Trim, and retired from the Truck studio in 1985. Boyer’s oral history focuses on his time at Ford Motor Company, particularly in the initial design and subsequent development of the Thunderbird which he worked on from 1952-1961 working his way up to head of the Thunderbird studio and Design Executive. He speaks of his time in the Lincoln-Mercury Advanced studio working on the MkIII and MkIV. In 1973, he moved to Australia as Chief Designer working on the Blackwood Program developing the XD Falcon. He returned to the US in 1977 as Director of the Advanced studio, and later worked as Director of Design Services – Trim and Color. He concludes his oral history discussing his work in the Truck studio designing minivans when he retired.

Collection contains 1 .25" tape, 2 cassettes, 2 WAV files, 2 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 2 loose transcripts, 1 bound transcript, and 1 PDF transcript. Uploaded July 22, 2021 and December 4, 2024.