Strother MacMinn got his start in automotive design when, at the age of 12, he met Frank Hershey at Walter M. Murphy Company who took him under his wing and mentored MacMinn in design. In 1937, MacMinn was hired at General Motors under Hershey in the Buick studio and then worked on the Opel design team. In 1938, he moved to Hudson Motor Car Company in the design department, but rejoined GM in the Oldsmobile studio in 1939. After serving in WWII, he returned to GM briefly in the Special Projects studio. In 1945, he was hired by Henry Dreyfuss working on product design. In 1948, while still working for Dreyfuss, he starting teaching at Art Center, a position he was still in at the time of the interview. In his oral history, MacMinn describes his early enthusiasm for automotive design and the role Frank Hershey played in developing his skill and understanding of design. He talks about his time at General Motors, describing the physical environment as well as the management of the styling department. He speaks at length about Harley Earl, Howard O’Leary, and Jules Andrade. In general, he speaks less of the designs he worked on and more of the atmosphere at work, eraser fights with coworkers, etc. MacMinn speaks of his dissatisfaction at the low chance for career progression at GM after returning from the war and his choice to leave the company and go into industrial design with Henry Dreyfuss. He speaks about Dreyfuss’s impact on the design world and briefly about the work he did in his five years with the company. MacMinn goes into great detail about his teaching work at Art Center, describing the physical campuses, the fellow teachers and directors, and his career with the school. He also discusses the Toyota Calty program, and how it heralded in many of the future advanced studios many car companies then initiated. He wraps up discussing his design philosophy.

Collection contains 4 cassettes, 4 WAV files, 4 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 1 bound transcript, and 1 PDF transcript. Uploaded July 26, 2021 and November 26, 2025.

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