Roy Chapin Jr. spent his entire career with Hudson Motor Car Company (later American Motors Corporation). Chapin worked in engineering and test driving before WWII and after the war he moved into sales, working his way up to a zone manager by the early 1950s. In 1955, he was named Assistant Treasurer and in 1962 Chief Financial Officer, Vice President, and Treasurer. He was named Chairman of AMC in 1967 and continued in this position until he retired in 1978 as Chairman and CEO. He continued to work in a consulting position with the company for over a decade after retiring. In the early section of his oral history, Chapin discusses his father's career at Hudson, role in the formation of the company, and his work with the U.S. Government. He discusses his own early career at Hudson and the various roles he filled including working in engineering, test driving, as well as his time managing aircraft work and as Assistant Contract Officer during WWII. He talks about his work after the war, starting as the Sales District Manager in Chicago before moving up to Zone Manager for several midwestern states. He details sales operations and sales techniques and discusses the state of the company and some of the key players just before the merger. He goes on to talk about the 1954 merger with Nash which created American Motors as well as George Mason and George Romney’s leadership of the company. In 1955, he was named Assistant Treasurer and moved into a position of greater responsibility when he was named CFO and Chief International Officer in 1962. He discusses some of the larger initiatives of the company including the development of the Javelin with Walter Teague, a move to more aggressive advertising, and the company’s entrance into racing. He talks about 1967 when he was named Chairman and Bill Luneberg was also promoted to help put the company back on better financial footing. He discusses hiring Victor Raviolo to freshen up design, as well as focusing on the AMX car for racing. Chapin talks about the 1970s and his decision to reign in the design department to focus on more basic vehicles, specifically niche vehicles that wouldn’t require the company to compete with the Big Three. Though he retired in 1978 and was not directly involved in the AMC merger with Renault, he discusses the role he played in negotiating a merger between AMC and Chrysler after Renault sold their AMX stock to Chrysler in 1987.

Collection contains 5 cassettes, 5 WAV files, 5 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 2 loose transcripts, 1 bound transcript, and 2 PDF transcripts. Uploaded July 23, 2021.