Walter Chrysler is, without dispute, the founder of Chrysler Corporation. Chrysler did not invent the automobile, did not found auto manufacturing, and did not create automobile marketing. Chrysler Corporation was not the first automobile corporation, nor was it ever the only auto company. It wasn’t even created solely with Walter Chrysler’s efforts and money; its elements (technology, personnel, methods and product) were taken from other companies which had developed them.
Walter Chrysler had worked for many years in other automobile manufacturers prior to founding Chrysler Corporation (he worked for Maxwell-Chalmers even after launching the first “Chryslers,” before taking that company and folding it into Chrysler Corporation). He adapted technologies from, used the same marketing as, licensed proprietary techniques from, produced the same basic products as, used the same types of workers as, conducted his operations in the same types of facilities as, etc. many already existing companies. Chrysler Corporation was a new twist on an already established business model and product; not a continuation of the first, not the only.
While Walter Chrysler is not the founder of the automobile or automobile manufacturing in any sense, he did found a new organization: Chrysler Corporation. Although reorganized under several names over the years, Chrysler Corporation is the “only way” through which Chrysler automobiles have been produced. Chrysler Corporation was not identical to any other automobile manufacturer. Although Chrysler would never have existed as an auto manufacturer had there not been a previous, original automobile manufacturer, Chrysler Corporation is not identical with and does not trace all the way back to that origin; it only began in 1925 with the organization’s founding by Walter Chrysler.
It would be a laughable lie to claim that Chrysler Corporation is identical to the original automobile manufacturer. It is ridiculous to claim that it is in any way “better” or “the best” due to tracing a claim (even if such could be proved) of direct descent back to the “original” automobile manufacturer. It is invalid to ascribe its founding to others, simply because others happened to have been around or even to have been used by W. Chrysler in setting up his organization.
It is irrelevant to Chrysler’s founding role that he modeled his company on pre-existing companies in which he had worked. Any claim that Walter Chrysler was not the founder of Chrysler Corporation, or that it had no founder, is a blatant falsehood.
If only Walter Chrysler had been thrown out of his own company, and his successors had denied his involvement, the analogy with 2x2ism’s founder would have been perfect. That kind of secret coup is impossible to pull off in the open environment a public corporation, though a few corporations exist that prefer to downplay the roles of their founders.
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