Famous Republican Entrepreneurs

Each month RTC will focus on one of America's foremost Republican entrepreneurs (past & present) and provide an interesting, not so well known fact about the individual's life and an inspiring quotaton.

As we discuss the US Government’s “support” of General Motors.  We felt it was opportune to honor the Founder of General Motors - William C. “Billy” Durant.  Grandson of Michigan’s Republican Governor, Henry Howland Crapo, and a lifelong Republican, Billy Durant was the leading entrepreneur of the automobile age, ‘The Great Gatsby of Carmaking”.

As a young man, Billy Durant and his partner, Josiah Dort, established the country’s largest manufacturer of horse drawn vehicles in Flint, Michigan.  At 39, he is already a millionaire and with the turn of the century excitment building regarding this new transportation technology, Billy attended the first automobile show at Madison Square Garden.  On display, over 300 models of the “horseless carriage” and he caught the entrepreneur fever.  He teamed up with David Buick a few years later and by 1910, Billy Durant brought together twenty-five companies into what would become the General Motors empire. 

Cadillac, Oakland (Pontiac), Olds, A.C. Spark Plugs, Buick, Fisher Body, Chevrolet are just a few well known companies that Billy helped build.  And one technology you may never guess.  Billy was an early investor in the “electric ice box” and the formation of Frigidaire Corporation.

Forced out of GM by the Du Ponts in the early 1920s, Billy started Durant Motors and became heavily involved in the roaring twenties stock market.  Durant Motors and Billy’s fortune failed to survive the 1929 crash and following Depression. 

“Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what you’re going to do now and do it.”
– William C. Durant