{"id":242031,"date":"2023-04-24T17:18:17","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T21:18:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=242031"},"modified":"2023-04-24T17:18:28","modified_gmt":"2023-04-24T21:18:28","slug":"a-true-gm-man-former-president-lloyd-reuss-dead-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2023\/04\/a-true-gm-man-former-president-lloyd-reuss-dead-at-86\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cA True GM Man,\u201d Former President Lloyd Reuss Dead at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It should have marked the pinnacle of a long career. But when Lloyd Reuss was named General Motors President in 1990 he walked into a maelstrom. The automaker was in the midst of a fast-accelerating crisis \u2014 its market share collapsing and its earnings diving deep into the red. Once hailed as a change agent, the industry veteran found himself positioned to take the fall, forced out three years later after a 36-year career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lloyd
Lloyd Reuss was named president of General Motors in 1990. He spent more than three decades with he company. He died Friday at age 86.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But where so many Detroit executives quickly moved to warmer climes after finishing up their own tenures, Lloyd Reuss dug in, spending much of his remaining years as a widely respected community leader and Detroit advocate. And for many who knew him, that was the true highlight of his life. Lloyd E. Reuss died Friday after a series of illnesses at the age of 86.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLloyd Reuss was a talented executive and leader of GM and was also a strong force for good in the community with his service, dedication and tireless efforts on behalf of others,\u201d GM CEO Mary Barra said in a statement. \u201cMy thoughts and deepest sympathies, along with those of everyone at General Motors, are with Mark (Reuss, GM\u2019s current president) and the entire Reuss family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA true car guy\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Trained as an engineer, Reuss has variously been described as a \u201ctrue car guy,\u201d and \u201ca true GM man.\u201d Indeed, his ties to the company ran deep, his father owning a Chevrolet dealership in Illinois, where he was born, the Detroit Free Press noted. Two children have worked for the automaker, including Mark, who has served as GM president since 2019, while granddaughter Amanda Reuss has worked in various jobs in GM marketing and communications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lloyd\u2019s own career began after a two-year stint as a first lieutenant with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1957, when he hired in, General Motors was an overwhelmingly dominant force. It was not just the world\u2019s biggest automaker but controlled nearly two-thirds of the U.S. automotive market \u2014 a fact that led the federal government to engage in a years-long, and ultimately unsuccessful bid to break the company up under antitrust laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chevrolet alone would have been one of the world\u2019s biggest auto companies, and it was there Reuss got on the fast track when he transferred. Indeed, everything seemed to move quicker there. “When I started, you didn’t say you were from General Motors,” Reuss told Automotive News in 2011. “You said you were from Chevrolet. The escalators even ran faster at Chevrolet than other parts of the company.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Vega<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of his most significant assignments was to lead development of the Chevrolet Vega. Brought to market in 1970 as a 1971 model, it was to be GM\u2019s answer to the small cars that were rapidly gaining share for the Japanese. The little Chevy initially scored well with consumers but was pulled from the market six years later due to a series of quality and reliability issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lloyd
Reuss helmed the company’s Buick division for several years, beginning in 1982.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Reuss himself survived the fiasco and was later put in charge of the Buick division. Charged with revitalizing the once-proud brand, he turned to the Japanese once again, modeling a mega-manufacturing complex in GM\u2019s home city, Flint, Michigan, that was to become known as Buick City.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAn unrelenting salesman\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By the early 1980s, Reuss had become one of the go-to guys for new GM Chairman and CEO Roger Smith. Unlike the squeaky voiced Smith, who suffered from a blotchy complexion that showed poorly on television, Reuss was more than an engineer, Reuss had the face and manner that could help sell the company\u2019s new strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“His small, tense body was always on the alert,” the late Maryann Keller, a highly regarded automotive analyst, wrote in her 1989 book, Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors. “He rarely unbuttoned his three-piece suit jacket, and his smooth, hard voice carried the tone of an unrelenting salesman.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith, a longtime accountant, was determined to transform GM investing billions of dollars in new products and manufacturing facilities. And when Smith decided to split the automaker into two halves, Reuss was put in charge of the unit combining the highline Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lloyd
Reuss wasn’t just a “true GM guy.” He was committed to Detroit, including playing a prominent role at Focus: HOPE.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Then, when the controversial Smith was ready to retire, Reuss was named GM\u2019s new president, the CEO spot going to Bob Stempel, who had been put in charge of the company\u2019s Chevrolet-Pontiac-Canada operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Caught in the maelstrom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reuss had barely settled into his new post when years of trouble caught up with the company, however.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under Smith, GM had lost more than a dozen points of market share \u2014 nearly equal to the size of then-Chrysler Corp. With sales continuing to fall and GM\u2019s balance sheet mired in the red, investors came looking for blood. Even as the new management team laid out a turnaround plan, Reuss found himself demoted in 1992, then forced out a year later. Stempel followed five months later, replaced in a boardroom coup by Jack Smith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staying put<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are whole communities in Florida populated by former Detroit auto executives who headed south as soon as they cashed their first retirement checks. Reuss wasn\u2019t leaving, however. If anything, he ratcheted up a long involvement in Motor City community programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That included Focus: HOPE, a Detroit non-profit established in the wake of the city\u2019s devastating 1968 riots. For many years, the organization focused on helping feed and house the city\u2019s neediest. Reuss came aboard in a bid to help find good-paying careers for those who were otherwise saddled with dead-end jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Lloyd
Mark Reuss, left, currently holds the same post his father, Lloyd, one held: GM President.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Focus: HOPE\u2019s Center for Advanced Technologies helped more than 300 inner city residents gain STEM training, earning associates and bachelor\u2019s degrees and, in many cases, landing engineering jobs with automakers and suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They needed someone who could bring industry in and had established some rapport with the educational institutions,” Reuss once explained in an interview. “The people we are graduating are not just engineers. We’re putting a lot of emphasis on people becoming entrepreneurs.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Setting the standard<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Reuss continued to serve the Detroit community in a variety of ways, from working as a trustee with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra to a spot as board chairman for Lawrence Technical University. There were numerous other educational assignments with the Cranbrook Education Community, Vanderbilt University and Louisville Presbyterian University. The scion of a deeply religious family, he was an elder with the 1st<\/sup> Presbyterian Church of Birmingham (Michigan).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reuss \u201cset the standard for corporate leadership. As successful as he was in the auto industry, he has been equally successful in providing education and training opportunities to thousands of Detroiters,\u201d Focus: HOPE CEO William F. Jones said, according to the Detroit News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Facebook post announcing Reuss\u2019s death, his family wrote that “He worked hard, yet always had time for us. A role model of integrity, fairness and will be remembered by many for giving back. He lived an amazing life and for that we are eternally grateful.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime GM executive and city of Detroit advocate Lloyd Reuss died Friday after a series of illnesses. Reuss, whose son, Mark, is the current GM president, was 86. Discover more about his career and impactful retirement at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3976,7,5,1164,905],"tags":[10640,348,2270,10641,10642],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242031"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242031"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":242040,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242031\/revisions\/242040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242031"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=242031"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=242031"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=242031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}