Walter Percy Chrysler was born on April 2, 1875, and died on August 18, 1940. He was an important leader in the automotive industry and worked as a business executive. He started a company called the American Chrysler Corporation, and the company was named after him.
Childhood
Chrysler was born in Wamego, Kansas, to Anna Maria Chrysler (née Breymann) and Henry Chrysler. He grew up in Ellis, Kansas, where his childhood home is now a museum. His father was born in Chatham, Ontario, in 1850 and moved to the United States after 1858. A Freemason, Chrysler began his career as a machinist and railroad mechanic in Ellis. He completed mail courses from the International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and earned a mechanical engineering degree through the program. During school, he met his future wife, Della Viola Forker, and they raised a family while he worked. Few records describe Della’s personal activities, but she managed household duties and family life, as was common for women of her time. Her work supported Chrysler during his demanding career, reflecting the social conditions that helped many industrial workers in the early 20th century.
Ancestry
Walter Chrysler’s father, Henry (Hank) Chrysler, was born in Canada and had German, English, and Dutch ancestors. He served as a locomotive engineer for the Kansas Pacific Railway and later for the Union Pacific Railroad. Walter’s mother was born in Rocheport, Missouri, and had German ancestry. Walter Chrysler was not particularly interested in learning about his distant ancestors. His collaborator, Boyden Sparkes, noted that one researcher mentioned a sea-going Dutchman named Captain Jan Gerritsen Van Dalsen among Walter’s ancestors. However, Walter said he agreed with comedian Jimmy Durante, who joked, “Ancestors? I got millions of ’em!” Despite this, Walter included details about his family history in his autobiography. He wrote that his father, Hank Chrysler, was born in Canada and moved to Kansas City when he was five or six. Hank’s ancestors had founded Chatham, Ontario, and were of German descent. Eight generations earlier, a family member named Greisler, a German Palatine, had traveled from Germany’s Rhine Valley to the Netherlands, then to England, and finally to New York.
Other researchers have studied Chrysler’s ancestry in greater detail. Karin Holl’s research traces the family to Johann Philipp Kreißler, who was born in 1672 and moved to New York in 1709. Chrysler’s ancestors came from the town of Guntersblum in the Rhineland-Palatinate region of Germany. His family is considered part of the Old Stock Americans.
Railroad career
Chrysler worked as an apprentice in the railroad shops at Ellis, learning the skills of a machinist and railroad mechanic. Later, he spent several years traveling across the western United States, working for different railroads as a roundhouse mechanic. He was known for his skill in valve-setting tasks. Chrysler moved often, first to Wellington, Kansas, in 1897, then to Denver, Colorado, for two weeks, and finally to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Some of his moves were due to restlessness and a quick temper, but traveling also helped him gain more knowledge about railroads. He advanced in his career, holding positions such as foreman in Trinidad, Colorado, superintendent, division master mechanic, and general master mechanic.
Between 1905 and 1906, Chrysler worked for the Fort Worth and Denver Railway in Childress, Texas. Later, he lived and worked in Oelwein, Iowa, at the main shops of the Chicago Great Western Railway. A small park in Oelwein is dedicated to him in recognition of his work.
The highest point of Chrysler’s career came in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he became the works manager of the Allegheny locomotive erecting shops for the American Locomotive Company (Alco). While working in Pittsburgh, Chrysler lived in the town of Bellevue, which is the first town outside Pittsburgh on the north side of the Ohio River.
Automotive career
In 1911, Chrysler received a notice to meet with James J. Storrow, a banker who was a leader at Alco. Storrow asked Chrysler if he had considered making cars. Chrysler had been interested in cars for more than five years and was excited about the idea. Storrow arranged a meeting with Charles W. Nash, who was then the president of Buick Motor Company. Nash was looking for someone to manage production. Chrysler, who had left many railroad jobs over the years, finally left railroading to become the works manager (in charge of production) at Buick in Flint, Michigan. He found ways to lower production costs, such as stopping the use of expensive finishing techniques for car frames that were not needed for the body.
In 1916, William C. Durant, who started General Motors in 1908, had taken back control of the company from bankers. Chrysler, who was connected to the bankers, resigned from his job at Buick and sent his notice to Durant, who was in New York City.
Durant traveled by train to Flint to try to keep Chrysler working at Buick. Durant offered Chrysler a salary of $10,000 (equivalent to $295,872 in 2025) each month for three years, plus a $500,000 (equivalent to $14.8 million in 2025) bonus at the end of each year or $500,000 (equivalent to $14.8 million in 2025) in company stock. Chrysler would report directly to Durant and have full control of Buick without interference. Chrysler was surprised and asked Durant to repeat the offer, which he did. Chrysler immediately accepted.
Chrysler led Buick successfully for three more years. After his contract ended in 1919, he resigned as president of Buick because he disagreed with Durant’s plans for General Motors. Durant paid Chrysler $10 million (equivalent to $186 million in 2025) for his GM stock. Chrysler had started at Buick in 1911 for $6,000 a year (equivalent to $207,321 in 2025) and left as one of the wealthiest men in the United States. GM replaced Chrysler with Harry H. Bassett, a person Durant had trained who had risen through the ranks at Weston-Mott, a company that was then part of Buick.
Chrysler was then hired by bankers who wanted to save their investment in Willys-Overland Motor Company in Toledo, Ohio. He asked for and received a salary of $1 million (equivalent to $18.6 million in 2025) a year for two years, an unusual amount at the time. After leaving Willys in 1921, Chrysler bought control of Maxwell Motor Company, which was struggling. He later merged Maxwell into his new company, the Chrysler Corporation, in Detroit, Michigan, in 1925. In addition to his namesake car company, Chrysler created two other car brands: Plymouth and DeSoto. In 1928, Chrysler bought Dodge Brothers and changed its name to Dodge. That same year, he funded the construction of the Chrysler Building in New York City, which was completed in 1930. Chrysler was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year for 1928.
He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1967.
Later years
In 1923, Chrysler bought a twelve-acre (5 ha) waterfront estate at Kings Point on Long Island, New York, from Henri Willis Bendel. He renamed the property Forker House. In December 1941, the U.S. government's War Shipping Department purchased the property, and it became known as Wiley Hall as part of the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
Chrysler also built a country estate in Warrenton, Virginia, which is located in an area known as the Virginia horse country and is home to the Warrenton Hunt. In 1934, he purchased the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs Company resort and spa in Warrenton and completed a major restoration of the property. The property was sold in 1953 and later developed into a country club.
In the spring of 1936, Chrysler turned 61 and left an active role in managing the company's daily operations. Two years later, his wife passed away at the age of 58. Chrysler, deeply affected by her death, suffered a stroke. His health never fully recovered from this, and he died from a cerebral hemorrhage in August 1940 at Forker House in Kings Point, New York. He was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Sleepy Hollow, New York.