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Howard) Kehrl wanted a good administrator, someone who could put GM Design Staff on a more businesslike footing. He got that. As a designer, Rybicki had done some nice things when he ran the Olds and
Chevrolet studios, but he lacked emotion and forcefulness. He didn't have the conviction to fight for design. He was too gentle a person to do battle at all."
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In 1956, Rybicki became assistant chief designer at the
Oldsmobile Studio where he was subsequently promoted to chief designer, remaining for five years. in February 1962, Rybicki became the chief designer in GM's Chevrolet studio, where he helped make GM’s lowest priced cars and trucks appear more
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that "General Motors, during
Rybicki's nine years in office, would lose not just its identity but its dominance of the American industry. It would lose its half century of automotive design leadership." The authors noted that Rybicki's "strength lay in administration. (GM Executive Vice President
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Rybicki's legacy is tied to his numerous innovations, his excellent design credentials, his collegiality and support of his designers, and yet simultaneously his acquiescence to corporate finance management and product engineers – and his limited success in elevating
General Motor's styling
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Having served successfully as a styling director for each of GM's five brand divisions, Rybicki assumed the corporate design leadership just as the industry entered a period of tremendous pressure: in quick succession, the federal government mandated waves of increasingly strict and comprehensive
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Rybicki superseded Bill
Mitchell, an outspoken, passionate designer, as GM Styling vice president on August 1, 1977 – at a time when the industry and company faced new fuel economy, safety regulations and emissions regulations; increased foreign competition, and a more controlling upper
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He was promoted to designer in 1947 and senior designer in 1950. He spent six years in the
Cadillac studio under future Styling VP Bill Mitchell. Rybicki was noted for innovating the concealed gas cap for the 1948 Cadillac, hidden within the flip-top taillight. Rybicki styled the interior and
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After he graduated from high school, Rybicki's father took his design sketches to
General Motors without his knowledge, speaking with Jules Andrade, one of Harley Earl’s assistants. GM showed interest in Rybicki's work, retaining his information and as it turned to wartime production.
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In
February 1944, in pursuit of an automotive styling career, Rybecki applied for and was hired as a project engineer by GM's Engineering Standards Laboratory at the GM Proving Ground. In September 1945, a colleague at the lab asked to show Rybicki's sketches to
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The oil crises of 1973 and 1979, along with the Energy and
Conservation Act of 1975, required the company build more fuel-efficient cars. To this end he oversaw the styling for the corporation's transformation to front-wheel-drive, including the
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magazine noted in 2016 that "confusion over how to cope with these new laws from a design and engineering standpoint led to poor decisions that affected the exterior and interior appearance of GM’s cars through the late 1970s and 1980s."
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had been a real pain in the ass, and the board wasn’t going to have any more of that. Rybicki liked big, cushy cars, and had a debilitating back problem," adding "Irv may well have been an okay guy, but he was definitely a yes-man."
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Rybicki became group chief designer for the
Chevrolet passenger car and GMC truck studios in 1965 and became the executive in charge of exterior design for Chevrolet and Pontiac passenger cars and Chevrolet and GMC trucks in 1970.
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automotive emissions, fuel efficiency and safety standards – severely hindering the industry's ability to adapt – a period that became widely associated with austere and ungainly design, referred to in retrospect as the
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Near the end of tenure as Vice President of Design, Rybicki gave an extensive interview with David Crippen for the Automotive Design Oral History project at the Benson Ford Research Center at the Henry Ford Museum, formerly
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Rybicki remained in his position over Chevrolet, Pontiac and GMC until 1972, when he was named executive in charge of Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. Rybicki worked on the design of the first generation
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for the 1973 model year, which Chevrolet general manager John Z. DeLorean approved for production without a single revision. The design featured an opera or coach window in the
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with a styling concept for a four-seater car with a sporty image that could augment the Corvette – what could have effectively leap-frogged the first
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Physically reserved and discreet, Irvin Rybicki neither wore the flamboyant outfits of his predecessors, nor had their forceful, outsized egos.
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Notably, Rybicki oversaw a design period under CEO Roger Smith where the A-bodies were called out on the cover of the August 22, 1983 issue of
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Wounded in the United States during his military service, he was discharged and never went abroad to fight during World War II.
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Rybicki attended Catholic grade school, and at an early age, began sketching and modeling airplanes while attending Detroit's
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Rybicki was born September 16, 1921, in Detroit to Wladyslav Walter Rybicki (1895–1972) and Helen Biess Rybicki (1899–1987).
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cars. He oversaw the 1982 Chevy Camaro and Pontiac Firebird, 1984 C4 Corvette and Ed Welburn's Olds Aerotech design.
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Noted automotive writer Michael Lamm and Dave Holls, former General Motors designer, wrote in their book
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described Rybicki as a “team player, someone that would allow GM’s top brass more control over styling.
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Over a career spanning 43 years with GM, Rybicki contributed significantly: from his work on the 1953
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and had a major role in GM's massive downsizing of the 1977 full-size and 1978 intermediate cars.
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All automotive design staff competing in the United States faced complex federal regulations;
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management. He was only one of seven to hold the Vice President of Design position, including
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699:"How a single magazine cover photo changed the course of auto design at GM in the Eighties"
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and was survived by his wife, son David Irvin Rybicki and daughter Susan Rybicki Sheehan.
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direction during his tenure as Vice President of Design to the level of his predecessors.
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and his tenure as the corporation's Vice President of Design from 1977–1986, succeeding
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in Detroit. His earliest sketching focus on airplanes changed when he saw his uncle's
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In 1946, Rybicki married Hazel Lee Ryland Rybicki (1926–2023). They lived in
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before there was a Ford Mustang); his contributions to the successful 1973
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A Century of Automotive Style: 100 Years of Automotive Design,
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115:(September 16, 1921 – July 24, 2001) was an American
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and, as Vice President, his design leadership on the 1982
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Vice President of General Motors Design (1977–1986)
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119:widely known for his career as a designer with
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681:"Looking Back on GM's Six Past Design Chiefs"
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478:. Rybicki retired from GM in October 1986.
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666:"Irvin W. Rybicki, the sacrificed General"
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209:. He would later study art at the
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235:. He died 24 Jul 2001 at 79 in
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833:American automobile designers
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296:instrument panel of the 1953
252:1953 Cadillac Le Mans Concept
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108:1984 Chevrolet 'C4' Corvette
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215:1938 Cadillac Sixty Special
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431:cars as well as the
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33:Irvin Walter Rybicki
597:"Rybicki, Irvin W."
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117:automotive designer
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575:"Irvin W. Rybicki"
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78:Car designer
60:(2001-07-24)
838:2001 deaths
823:1921 births
797:(2003–2016)
791:(1992–2004)
785:(1986–1992)
779:(1977–1986)
777:Irv Rybicki
773:(1958–1977)
767:(1940–1958)
765:Harley Earl
701:. Hemmings.
447:Motor Trend
390:Harley Earl
328:Monte Carlo
260:Harley Earl
184:Malaise era
125:Harley Earl
90:(1944–1986)
23:Irv Rybicki
817:Categories
795:Ed Welburn
621:2022-03-02
581:30 October
561:References
549:1987–1996
543:1987–1991
533:1986–1993
519:1985–1993
505:1985–1990
493:1982–1994
487:1973–1977
425:A-platform
421:J-Platform
406:Ed Welburn
304:upscale.
194:Background
74:Occupation
39:1921-09-16
525:Fleetwood
319:in 1967.
176:Fleetwood
142:(i.e., a
467:Mitchell
332:B-pillar
84:Employer
803:(2016–)
539:Seville
158:, 1984
154:, 1984
427:cars,
423:cars,
317:Camaro
499:1983
380:1993
369:1995
358:1984
288:1973
277:1976
583:2013
408:and
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127:and
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55:Died
49:, US
29:Born
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