Frank is probably remembered as the Father of the Thunderbird first and foremost, but he had a long and distinguished career. He was born in Detroit in 1907, moved out to Pasadena and got his first job with Murphy Coachworks, designing custom cars for exclusive clients. When he went to General Motors, one of the first things he did was to redesign the 1933 Pontiac, adding the silver streak of chrome which was to be a hallmark of that marque for years. He later worked for GM's Opel division in Germany, just before World War II.
The design of the 1948 Cadillac was really Frank Hershey's personal baby. During the crucial time of design and clay modeling, there was a labour dispute in progress at General Motors, and the design team moved to Hershey's farm.
Later, Frank left GM and went to Ford, where he designed the Thunderbird, which was a huge success -- a classic the day it rolled off the line.
updated February 28th, 2002 by Jan Chciuk-Celt