Iacocca then began his career at the Ford Motor Company, working at first as a Ford engineer.įord Motor Company (1946 to 1978) Iacocca was instrumental in the development of the Ford Mustang. At Lehigh University, he was a member of Tau Beta Pi, the engineering honor society, and Theta Chi fraternity.Īfter graduating from Lehigh, he won the Wallace Memorial Fellowship and went to Princeton University, where he earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1946. He attended Lehigh University in neighboring Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he graduated with a degree in industrial engineering. Iacocca graduated with honors from Allen High School in Allentown in 1942. However, he denied this rumor in his autobiography, calling it romantic but untrue his father went to Lido long before his marriage and was traveling with his future wife's brother. He was said to have been christened with the unusual name 'Lido' because he was conceived during his parents' honeymoon in the Lido district in Venice.

Members of his family operated a restaurant, Yocco's Hot Dogs, which continues to operate four store locations in Allentown and its suburbs. Iacocca was born in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to Nicola Iacocca and Antonietta Perrotta, Italian Americans (from San Marco dei Cavoti, Benevento) who had settled in the steel producing region of Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. Iacocca authored or co-authored several books, including Iacocca: An Autobiography (with William Novak), and Where Have All the Leaders Gone?. He was one of the few executives to preside over the operations of two of the United States' Big Three automakers.

He was president and CEO of Chrysler from 1978 and chairman from 1979, until his retirement at the end of 1992.

ə ˈ k oʊ k ə/ EYE-ə- KOH-kə Octo– July 2, 2019) was an American automobile executive best known for the development of the Ford Mustang, Continental Mark III, and Ford Pinto cars while at the Ford Motor Company in the 1960s, and for reviving the Chrysler Corporation as its CEO during the 1980s.

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