Robert L. Dorn, 75, A Deming Disciple, Retired Cadillac Engineering Chief and Father of The NorthStar V-8, is Gone Too Soon...

Publisher's note:   I've just gotten word that long-time colleague and friend Robert L. Dorn, 75, succumbed to cancer last night in his Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, home where he had been transferred following hospitalization.

Bob Dorn 
Kettering University, '60

Dorn, former Cadillac Chief Engineer and a disciple of process improvement guru Dr. W. Edwards Deming, personally guided Cadillac in a technology and quality revolution within GM that not only garnered his Division the Malcolm Baldridge Award for quality, but laid the technological foundation for the superb NorthStar V-8 engine.

When production difficulties with the Allante Sports Coupe threatened Cadillac's hard fought return to a position of prestige parity such as that existing when it won the coveted Dewar Trophy in 1903, Dorn worked closely with a select team to "fix it".

The ASME (American Society for Mechanical Engineers) organization conferred upon Dorn its highest award for "The Cadillac Quality Management Story", a paper written in the field of Management, economics or business...

A more expansive story on the life of a person who was inarguably one of GM's finest engineers with an atypical vision for returning Cadillac to greatness, will follow later this week.

David E. Davis
Image: niot.net

Lastly, I will take this opportunity to convey condolences (March 27, 2011) to the family of another long-time colleague whose knowledge of automobiles and company I have enjoyed for nearly three decades;  Automobile Magazine Founder and Car & Driver contributor David E. Davis.

Rest well Bob and Dave, the automotive industry is in your debt...

Carpe diem,
Myron D. Stokes




Related:

http://www.kettering.edu/visitors/storydetail.jsp?storynum=265
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._Davis


Full page ad for 1987 Cadillac Allante; body by Pininfarina and flown from Italty via Lufthansa and Alitalia 747s for mating to engine, drive train and suspension at Hamtramck, Michigan, GM production plant   Image: Cadillac Motor Car Division



Veteran Automotive Journalist Denied Credentials to 2011 Detroit North American International Auto Show (NAIAS); Believes Actions Associated With China Reportage; Has Instructed Legal Representation to Ascertain Viability of Possible Litigation



ER Publisher Myron D. Stokes Presents Ford Marketing Executive Francisco Condima with 2006 Car of The Year Award for Lincoln Zephyr/MK-Z at The Chicago Auto Show     Image: Ford



Award winning Publisher of eMOTION! REPORTS.com Believes Action Associated with China Reportage; Has Instructed Legal Representation to Ascertain Viability of Possible Litigation Based on Assertion/Assumption of Discrimination

January 10, 2011 Detroit – Veteran automotive journalist Myron D. Stokes, Publisher of eMOTION! REPORTS.com (www.emotionreports.com http://emotionreportscom.blogspot.com/ ) an automotive/aerospace industries research and analysis site targeting professionals within the academic, media, corporate and government sectors, is today advising media and corporate colleagues he is being denied media credentials by North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) officials for reasons he considers specious and unreasonable.

Veteran Automotive Journalist Denied Credentials to 2011 Detroit North American International Auto Show (NAIAS); Believes Actions Associated With China Reportage; Has Instructed Legal Representation to Ascertain Viability of Possible Litigation

View more documents from eMOTION! REPORTS.com.

A Brief Analysis of Why The World's Auto Industry Should Be Concerned With GM's Sell-off of NEXTEER to The People's Republic of China

Publisher's note:        

If there was any doubt about the accuracy of assertions made in the ER analysis "GM's Transition to China" relative to who truly controls General Motors, the inexplicable sale of NEXTEER (formerly Delphi Division Saginaw Steering Gear) a tier one supplier of steering wheels to GM, Fiat SpA , Ford Motor Co, Toyota Motor Corp, Chrysler Group LLC, PSA Peugeot Citroen, along with automakers in South America, India, and China -- subsequent to the extraction of significant concessions from the UAW -- to the Beijing-controlled Pacific Century Motors JV, confirms it.  And, it is worth noting that 15 years ago in a private conversation, J.T. Battenberg III, former CEO of Delphi, was specifically warned of China's takeover intentions.


As far as eMOTION! REPORTS.com analysts are concerned -- with as much professional respect permissible -- the observably short-sighted, uninformed and irresponsible GM "management" team has just handed the automotive sector of the People's Republic of China a kill switch to its global competitors; assuming CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the US) permits this.

It goes without saying that if the aforementioned client base of Nexteer are not concerned, they very well should be.

 
- Myron D. Stokes

2009/2010 Auto Industry Analysis: GM's TRANSITION TO CHINA (6) eMOTION! REPORTS.com

2009/2010 Auto Industry Analysis: GM's TRANSITION TO CHINA (6) eMOTION! REPORTS.com

View more documents from eMOTION! REPORTS.com.

From this analysis:           

 As its presence grew, the evidences of China’s dubious human history were there to be seen by anyone who looked. Visions of the country’s forced one-child family policy, detention centers for those citizens seeking redress from corrupt officials, the Stalin-esque elimination of millions of elderly no longer able to work --aerial photographic evidence of the horror still marked as ’ classified’ in U.S. State Department/DoD archives -- (note: eyewitness accounts include those of contract air cargo personnel for the US military who reported “rivers choked bank to bank with bodies of the old and infirm, hands tied behind their backs, as far as the eye could see at our radar avoiding’ flight level and line of sight of seven miles. We used high-resolution cameras in our PBY to document these observations, with a death toll estimate partially corroborated by the Red Cross and other capable people of at least 70 Million’ ) in the days following Mao Zhedong’s ouster of Chiang Kai-Shek to Formosa in 1949, or college students who protested were avoidable if one looked in a different direction. Also ignored was China’s blatant disregard for anyone else’s property or intellectual property rights. (It was GM’s vice chair Bob Lutz who had noticed a Jeep driving around the streets of Beijing during a much earlier visit during his tenure with Chrysler. His Chinese host proudly announced it wasn’t a Jeep, but a successful copy of the Jeep, down to every detail.)

Consolidated PBY Catalina Flying Boat of The Type That Discovered Mao Zhe-Dong Ordered Atrocity Against Old and Infirm Chinese Citizens - Inclusive of the Complete Depopulating of Shanghai - Following the Ouster of Nationalist Forces under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek in 1949 Image: United States Navy

From the press release:                       

6. Reveals, based on still classified data and imagery within US State Department and Department of Defense (DoD) archives, that Mao Zhedong, in a move echoing that of Josef Stalin, ordered the extermination of old and infirm Chinese he deemed unable to work in the aftermath of his defeat of the nationalist forces of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek in 1949. The number of those killed in the days and weeks transpiring subsequent to order issuance, at least 70 million and as high as 120 million, exceeds by several orders of magnitude the known estimates in the 1949-1976 timeframe which included “The Great Leap Forward”. It is worth noting the higher estimate at the time represented half of the population of the United States. (note: Eyewitness accounts include those of contract Air Cargo personnel for the US military who reported ’rivers choked bank to bank with bodies of the old and infirm, hands tied with wire behind their backs, as far as the eye could see at our radar avoiding’ flight level and line of sight of seven miles. We used high-resolution cameras in our [Consolidated] PBY [Catalina Flying Boat] to document these observations, with a death toll estimate partially corroborated by the Red Cross and other capable people of at least 70 Million. We chanced upon this horrific scene while flying along the coast over the East China Sea not far from Shanghai, when we observed at least a thousand sharks headed inland. Having no idea what would be bringing the sharks in, we flew lower for a closer look and followed them up a river for approximately five or six miles to a sight we will never forget: a massive feeding frenzy on human victims.’)


mstokes@emotionreports.com
http://www.emotionreports.com/
248-809-1905