Charles W. Nash

From Buick to Rambler to Ambassador

Here's a biographical profile of Charles Nash, an American automobile tycoon who died in 1948 in the tony city of Beverly Hills, California, leaving an estate of approximately $50 million. Not bad considering his roots: a dirt-poor farm boy whose parents split up when he was six years old and essentially abandoned him. Unimaginable today, a court indentured the six-year-old to a Michigan farmer to work for room and board until he was 21.

Nash ran away from that farm when he was 12 and continued running until he had become one of America's most successful and accomplished automobile pioneers. B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes magazine called Nash "an authority on what makes for success", and the Nash story is a great lesson on the attributes required to achieve that success.

©2008 Daniel Alef (P)2008 Daniel Alef