John Bird began his career at Studebaker as a junior draftsman during WWII, after serving in the army in WWII, he returned to Studebaker as a clay modeler. Later in his career, he worked at General Motors in the Advanced studio and was Chief Modeler for the Buick studio. He worked the remainder of his career as Chief Modeler of GM Design and retired in 1980. After retirement he worked on a contract basis for several firms. Bird’s oral history discusses his time at Studebaker, first as a junior draftsman working on Wright Cyclone Engine gears, and then his work as a clay modeler in the design department under Virgil Exner and Gordon Buehrig. Bird discusses how he had no training or experience in modeling at the time and learned his trade on the job. He also talks about his part in the group that worked with Dick Calleal designing and modeling what would become in the 1949 Ford. In 1955, Bird moved to GM as a master modeler in the Advanced studio working on the Oldsmobile Toronado and the Cadillac Cyclone concept car. In 1960, he became Chief Modeler for the Buick studio. He discusses his time from 1967-1980 when he was Chief Modeler for GM design playing a large role in gaining more recognition for modelers and giving them a greater role in design. In this role he also worked on modeling the GM World Truck in Brazil and a race car for Emerson Fittipaldi. After retirement he worked on a contract basis for several firms, designing RVs and also assisted in setting up the Prince Corp. modeling and design studio.

Collection contains 3 cassettes, 2 compact discs, 3 WAV files, 3 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 2 loose transcripts, 1 bound transcript, and 1 PDF transcript. Uploaded July 22, 2021 and December 2, 2024.