David Dunbar Buick

David Dunbar Buick was a man of brilliant mechanical insight and poor business timing. An immigrant plumber from Scotland, he found success in Detroit with a process for bonding porcelain to iron, creating the durable white finish for bathtubs. The profits fueled his real passion: gasoline engines. In 1899, he founded the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company, and his team’s groundbreaking development of the overhead valve engine provided more power with less weight—a technology that would dominate the industry. But Buick was an inventor, not a corporate titan. He poured money into prototypes and by 1906, deeply in debt, he was forced to sell his controlling interest for a mere $100,000. The company, under William C. Durant, became the cornerstone of General Motors. Buick drifted through failed ventures and died nearly forgotten, a stark contrast to the global automotive empire that bore his name.