Don Kopka began his career at Chrysler in 1950 after earning a degree in industrial design from Wayne State University. In 1952, he was made the Dodge studio manager and in 1960 was named head of the Chrysler studio. Kopka moved to Ford Motor Company in 1961 as a design executive under David Ash working in the Advanced Studio. In 1967, he was named head of Interiors, and in 1968 became executive director of design under Gene Bordinat. In the 1970s, he became executive director of the Advanced and International Studio, and in 1980 was named vice president for design, the position he retired from in 1987. Kopka briefly discusses his time at GM before moving to FMC in 1961. In his work in the Advance Studio, he worked on the on the Cougar, Fairmont (later Torino), Mustang, Falcon, and other small cars. He discusses his time as assistant chief of design under Bordinat and the different factions that appeared with Semon Knudsen, Larry Shinoda, Gene Bordinat, and Lee Iacocca and the difficult position that put him in. He discusses the different leadership styles he saw in design including George Walker, Gene Bordinat, Lee Iacocca, and Donald Petersen and how each ushered in a new era of design. He discusses his role as executive director of the Advanced and International studio, and his push for aerodynamic vehicles with emphasis on his role in the Probe concept series. He wraps up discussing his time as vice president for Design and how the company was moving to creating design through cooperation from engineering, design, corporate, and product planning. He also talks about the difference between European and American vehicles and audiences and his vision of where car design was moving in the future. The oral history ends with a few postscripts Kopka added in 1990.

Collection contains 1 .25" tape, 2 cassettes, 2 WAV files, 2 MP3 files, 1 diskettes, 1 loose transcript, 1 bound transcript, and 2 PDF transcripts. Uploaded July 26, 2021.

Acc. 1856 Executive Speech Collection box 10 1981 July 14, Donald F. Kopka, Urban Car News Conference, 1982 January 7, Donald F. Kopka, AFV News Conference