Bill Mitchell and his Love for Drawing Cars

On July 2, 1912, Mr. Bill Mitchell was born in Greenville, Pennsylvania. His father was a Buick dealer who regularly brought home trade in Stutz and Mercer sport cars. At the age of 15, Mr. Mitchell received a summer job as an office boy at the Barron Collier advertising agency in New York. While working at the Collier’s agency, he became interested in sports car racing and soon was illustrating event programs for American Road Racing Club.

In 1930, Mr. Bill Mitchell enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and studied at the Art Students League in New York. During the early part of his career, he developed a drawing technique characterized by action and dynamism. In 1935, he took his automotive designs to General Motors Vice President of Design, Mr. Harley Earl. Being beyond impressed by his drawing technique, Mr. Earl hired Mr. Mitchell as General Motors automotive designer.





Within a year, Mr. Mitchell was appointed as Chief Designer of the Cadillac Studio, which was General Motors lead styling division. Soon, Mr. Mitchell made his trademark by designing the 1938 Cadillac Sixty Special Design. This design became very popular among the buying public for it was the first car without running boards.

On May 1, 1954, Mr. Harley Earl named Mr. Mitchell as GM’s Director of Styling. In 1958, Mr. Harley Earl retired and Mr. Mitchell was named as GM’s Vice President of Styling. From 1958-1977, Mr. Mitchell has a profound impact on the automotive designs. Some of his most successful production cars were the 1963 Corvette Sting Ray, 1963 Buick Riviera, the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado, and the 1970 Camaro.



Mr. Mitchell was a classy dresser who had a style of his own. Sometimes, he would order suits to match his vehicles. He loved the powerful and sharp edge car shows such as the Mako Shark Corvette Show Car. He believed that automotive designers must be car lovers that had gasoline following in their blood. Without the passion, the result would resemble folded paper or a tube of shaving cream with wheels.



In 1977, Mr. Mitchell retired as General Motors Vice President. On September 12, 1988, Mr. William Mitchell died of congestive heart failure at 76 years old. Mr. Mitchell’s design work was extraordinary and most of his designs will continue to be part of automotive history. As Charles M. Jordan once said, “Bill Mitchell was one of the most influential designers in the history of this business.”

A special thanks to Robert Tate, Automotive Historian and Researcher, for donating his story to the MotorCities Story of the Week program. Images are courtesy of Robert Tate. Please do not use any photographs without the permission of MotorCities/Robert Tate. For further information contact Robert Tate at btate@motorcities.org

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