inventor, manufacturer, industrialist, b. De Kalb County, Ill. Bound out to a farmer by his parents at the age of six, Nash worked as an itinerant farmer in Illinois for several years. In 1891 he moved to Flint, Mich., where he obtained employment as a trimmer for the Flint Road Cart Co. He advanced steadily with this firm, becoming successively vice-president and superintendent, and continuing as superintendent of its successor, the Durant-Dort Carriage Co. In 1910 he became president and general manager of the Buick Motor Co., and in 1912 was also elected president of General Motors Co. Following a policy dispute in 1916, he left General Motors and Buick, moved to Kenosha, and there established the Nash Motor Co. The first Nash automobile was produced in 1917, and the company grew rapidly. Branch plants were established at Milwaukee (Seaman Body Corp., 1918), Racine (the Mitchell plant, 1924), and eventually another plant was established at Pine Bluffs, Ark. In 1936 Nash effected an agreement that led to the formation of the Nash-Kelvinator Corp. (19 37), became chairman of the board of that corporation, and served in that capacity until his death. During his later years he lived in Beverly Hills, Calif. Nash was also a director of the First National Bank and the Brown National Bank of Kenosha, as well as the Chicago and North Western R.R., the Chicago, St. Paul and Omaha R.R., and the Continental Illinois Bank and Trust Co. of Chicago. Who's Who in Amer., 24 (1946); M. M. Quaife, Wis. (4 vols., Chicago, 1924); Milwaukee Journal, June 7, 1948; Kenosha Evening News, July 30, 1936.Learn More
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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]
