Knudsen started his career working at Cross Gear and Machine after graduating from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering. He moved on to General Motors in 1939, working in the Pontiac division tooling, then heading Processing Development, and then in manufacturing at Allison and Detroit Diesel. In 1956, Knudsen was chosen to head the Pontiac division, and then in 1961 was named general manager of Chevrolet. In 1965, he was made a vice president and in 1967 became executive vice-president. Knudsen left GM in 1968 to serve as president of Ford Motor Company until he was let go in 1969. After that, Knudsen headed White Motor Company and worked in other automotive endeavors. Knudsen begins his oral history discussing his father, William Knudsen’s, career at General Motors, Ford, and his government service during WWII. He moves on to discuss his own career, including his early years in the manufacturing side of the industry with the GM tool design department, which he headed by 1948, his work as head of Process Development, as well as his time with Allison where he worked on Jet engines, and Detroit Diesel working on new engines. He spends quite a bit of time talking about his time heading up the Pontiac division, his work fixing mechanical problems and updating styling, marketing, and performance to move the division from 5th to 3rd place in the industry. He then talks about his time as the general manager of Chevrolet modernizing styling and some of the key people who worked under him. He talks about the Corvair safety issues and Ralph Nadar’s book and the impact on General Motors. He discusses briefly his time as executive vice-president and his growing dissatisfaction with GM, particularly the control by finance men and deteriorating production quality. Knudsen recalls his resignation from the company and being contacted by Henry Ford II to take over the presidency at Ford in 1968. He talks about his time at Ford, the company’s strengths and weaknesses, and the difficulties in working with Henry Ford II. He briefly discusses his time at White Motor Company and some of the projects he worked on. Knudsen wraps up his oral history discussing takeaways from his career, modern day problems at Ford and GM, and the outlook for the industry in the 1990s, especially the problem American manufacturers would face in terms of Japanese industry competition.

Collection contains 5 cassettes, 12 compact discs, 5 WAV files, 5 MP3 files, and an PDF transcript. Updated July 3, 2025.

Related resources: Acc. 1856 Executive Speech Collection box 10 1969 January 15, Semon E. Knudsen, Society of Automotive Engineers