Donald DeLaRossa started his career in the General Motors design department in 1945 working one year in the Buick studio and one in Cadillac. In 1947, he moved to Ford Motor Company’s design department and worked there until 1978. DeLaRossa worked mainly in the Lincoln studio and advanced studios and was head of the Lincoln design studio from 1957-1961. From 1970-1978 he also served as President and Chairman of Ghia after Ford bought the company. He took at early retirement from Ford and joined Chrysler in 1979 becoming Vice President of Product Design in 1980, the position he held when this interview was conducted. In his oral history, DeLaRossa discusses his first experience in design under Henry Lauve and Bill Mitchell at GM. He goes on to talk about the challenges of the Ford design department while George Walker and his staff were competing against Ford designers. DeLaRossa discusses working with Gene Bordinat and his appreciation for his handling of design within the larger Ford organization. He discusses his work on several competitor versions of Ford products including alternative designs to the 1961 Continental, next generation Mustang, as well as his work on the 1971 Torino, 1974 Elite, Mk IV and V. He discusses many of the personalities at Ford and how they interacted with design including Lee Iacocca, Henry Ford II, and the difficult time the design department faced under Bunkie Knudsen. He goes on to talk about his time at Ghia and the creative freedom working in a small organization allowed him. He wraps up his interview discussing his move to Chrysler and the changes he made, including the G-29 and the Chrysler minivan.

Collection contains 1 .25" tape, 4 cassettes, 4 WAV files, 4 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 1 bound transcript, and 1 PDF transcript.

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