death_place death_date birth_place birth_date spouse article_title name occupation
grosse pointe woods , michigan 22 january 1990 mason city , illinois 18 june 1904 -lrb- whitten -lrb- 2 -rrb- kathryn -lrb- `` kay '' -rrb- 1 lundell benzin -rrb- elizabeth -lrb- `` betty '' -rrb- gordon buehrig
 gordon buehrig automobile designer
gordon buehrig

gordon miller buehrig -lrb- b-yur-rig -rrb- -lrb- june 18 , 1904 -- january 22 , 1990 -rrb- was a noted automobile designer .
born in mason city , illinois , he had early design experience with packard , general motors and stutz .
in 1929 , he was responsible for designing the bodies -lrb- built by weymann -rrb- of the stutz black hawks entered at le mans .
at age 25 he became chief body designer for duesenberg , where he designed the .
he joined the auburn automobile company of auburn , indiana in 1934 , producing the famous 1935 851 boattail speedster , based on the work of alan leamy .
-lrb- a kit copy of this car was driven by the title faceman on nbc 's `` remington steele '' . -rrb-
he also designed the distinctive cord 810/812 , the latter recognized for its originality by the museum of modern art in 1951 .
in 1949 , buehrig joined ford , where his projects included the 1951 victoria coupe and the 1956 continental mark ii .
he invented the removable t-top , patented 5 june 1951 , which was used in the aborted tasco sports car .
retiring from ford in 1965 , buehrig taught for five years at the art center college of design in california .
in 1979 , he produced the design for the buehrig motor car , a limited-production carriage roof coupe .
buehrig died in grosse pointe woods , michigan on january 22 , 1990 at the age of 85 .
his cremated remains are buried in roselawn cemetery in auburn , indiana .
buehrig was one of 25 candidates for car designer of the century , an international award given in 1999 to honor the most influential automobile designer of the 20th century .
it was won by the legendary giorgetto giugiaro whose designs are the standards by which all automobiles are based since the 1960 's .
