Roy Brown Jr.—designer of the much maligned, ’50s flop the Ford Edsel—passed away on Feb. 24 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, from complications of pneumonia and Parkinson’s Disease. He was 96.
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, after World War I, Brown first went to work at GM’s Cadillac Studio before moving over to Oldsmobile. In 1953, he began work for the Ford Motor Company. By the mid-1950s, Brown was put in charge of a new vehicle project that was intended to slot in between the more mundane standard Ford and the more upscale Mercury. Designed to make a statement and be distinctly recognizable the flamboyant Edsel completely missed the American population’s then changing automotive tastes. After investing over $250 million in the project and hoping to sell over 200,000 units, the Edsel’s atrocious sales resulted in it being canceled with just 118,000 units ever being built.
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