When Fisher Body celebrated its 75th Anniversary in 1983, a commemorative newspaper was published called "Fisher Body Craftsman." In it appeared news stories that  were re-created by combining  numerous newspaper articles of yesteryear accumulated in the Fisher Body Public Relations files. These stories, reproduced here, are only as historically accurate as the original news stories.

   DETROIT, MICH, July 23, 1908-- Papers were filed yesterday incorporating a new Michigan firm called the Fisher Body Company that its owners say will manufacture the highest quality bodies available for the makers of motorcars.
    The owners of the new company are two brothers, Fred J. Fisher and Charles T. Fisher and their uncle, Albert Fisher.   Capitalizing the firm at $50,000, owners of the new business say they have hopes of securing contracts from some of the many producers of autos in this part of the country, such as Cadillac in Detroit, Oldsmobile in Lansing, Ford in Highland Park and a combine of manufacturers now being formed in Flint headed by William C. Durant.

 

July 27, 1913-- With its capacity now apoproaching 100,000 motorcar bodies a year in only five years of operation, Fisher Body Company of this city is quickly becoming one of the major industries here.
    There are now 10 plants in the northern Detroit area and  Canada, it has been learned by this newspaper.   While the owners of the firm have modestly said little about their company's explosive growth during these five years, it has been found that many outstanding autos, such as Ford, Krit, Chalmers, Cadillac and Studebaker, all  purchased bodies from the Fisher organization. 

 

Aug. 23, 1916--  Three companies principally owned by the Fisher brothers of Detroit were combined into one corporation here yesterday.  It will henceforth be called the Fisher Body Corporation. 
 

Dec. 23, 1918-- With the production of aeroplanes at the Fisher Body Corporation Aeroplane Division plant on West End Avenue coming to an end yestereday, officials of the firm announced that they are negotiating the purchase of the building from the government for the making of motor cars.

 

Nov. 14, 1919-- The General Motors Corporation has purchased a three-fifths interest in the thriving Fisher Body Corporation, according to an announcement made here yesterday by the presidents of the two firms, William C. Durant of GM and Fred J. Fisher of Fisher Body.

 

Feb. 18, 1926-- The Fisher Lumber Co. of Memphis has expanded its operations, acquiring the Fisher Hurd Lumber Co. and Pritchard Wheel Co., both of Memphis, as well as sawmills at Ferriday and Wisner, La.
    The Fisher Corporation of Detroit, considered the largest maker of auto bodies in the world, now owns approximately 160,000 acres of timberlands in the Southern states. In addition, the firm owns about 62,000 acres of timberlands in Northern Michigan. 
 

July1, 1926-- The outstanding minority interest of the Fisher Body Corp. was assumed yesterday by General Motors with the Fisher organization now becoming a division of GM.
    General Motors has owned a three-fifths interest in Fisher Body since 1919 and yesterday announced that the remaining two-fifths had been obtained in a stock transaction.

 

Oct. 20, 1930--  Operations of the Fleetwood Metal Body Co. of this borough will be moved to Detroit starting the first of next year, it was announced today by owners of the firm, the Fisher Body Division of General Motors.
    Purchased by Fisher Body in 1925, the Fleetwood operation has been part of the town of Fleetwood  since 1909 when Harry C. Uhrich, a country blacksmith, conceived the idea of forming a company to build the finest quality automobile bodies that he and  his artisan neighbors could produce. 

 

Jan. 10, 1935--   All General Motors cars-- Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac-- will have Fisher Body Division's new all-steel turet top when the 1935 models are shown at the 35th National Automobile Show here this month.
    The solid-steel development is the latest in a long series of pioneering efforts by the Fisher Body organization.  Fisher is the first to introduce such a top, drawn and formed from a sheet of seamless solid steel.
 

Aug. 15, 1945-- Announcement yesterday of the end of the war in the Pacific will bring about another major manufacturing turnabout in Fisher Body Division of General Motors where four years ago its plants almost overnight were launched into production of tools of battle.
    The advent of Pearl Harbor meant designing, tooling up and manufacturing types of goods and materials entirely unfamiliar to Fisher Body employees-- like airplane components, tanks, big guns, artillery shells and aircraft instruments.
    At the peak of the war years, Fisher Body employed around 68,000 men and women.  Hundreds of training classes were required to teach them completely unfamiliar jobs. 

 

Oct. 18, 1956--  One of General Motors' major divisions-- Fisher Body-- has completed the move to its new headquarters building in Warren after being located for nearly half a century in Detoit.
    The move is the latest of many that Fisher Body has taken to bcome the dominant builder of car bodies since the end of World War II.
    The post-war years have seen the division branching into many new locations such as Euclid, Hamilton and Mansfield, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Grand Blanc and Livonia, Michigan; Willow Springs, Illinois; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Marion, Indiana.

 

Sept. 16, 1965--  How much would one be worth if he had purchased $200 worth of the early Fisher Body stock?
    Quite a bit, according to a story told here recently by one of the two surviving Fisher brothers.
    William A. Fisher  related that one of the company's early employees,  believed to have been the chief engineer for the open body designed cars, had originally purchased $200 worth of Fisher stock back in the "teens."
   

Nov. 4, 1968--  Ternstedt and Fisher Body Division-- separated two decades ago when Ternstedt was made a separate General Motors division-- are being united again.
    Chairman of the Board James M. Roche announced today that consolidation of Ternstedt into Fisher Body Division will permit increased coordination of automotive body design and engineering.  The headquarters of the two divisions now face each other across one of the Technical Center lakes.

 

Jan. 18, 1972-- Their names were Fred, Charles,  Lawrence, William, Edward, Alfred and Howard-- born in that order.
    They were Detroit's famous Fisher brothers who were both well-known and yet the least-known family in the Motor City.
    Yesterday, the last member of the seven-brother clan, Edward F., died at Providence Hospital at the age of 80.  He was the fifth oldest of the brothers and was an executive for GM until retiring in 1944, having served as a vice-president and general manager of Fisher Body Division. 

 

Dec. 31, 1979-- A decade is ending tonight and for one in six Americans whose paychecks depend one way or another upon the automobile, there's hope that the 1980's will treat them a whole lot better.
     It was a decade of turmoil for the U.S. auto industry centered in Detroit and typical of the operations which underwent some big changes during the 10 years was Fisher Body, one of the "Big Three" domestic divisions of General Motors.
    Fisher Body, with its headquarters in Warren, has always played a key role in GM operations because it holds responsibility for the engineering and car body components for all GM models except one-- the Chevrolet Corvette.

Fisher Body is typical of the automobile operations on this country which rode the roller coaster of the 70's that included such obstacles as:
     >An avalanche of federal and state regulations.
     >Inflation that brought the world economy to its knees.
     >The oil embargo of 1973-74 that skyrocketed oil prices and caused repercussions on many fronts.
     >Downsizing of all models to cut fuel consumption.
     >Attempting to meet the demands of the market which leaped from large car preferences to small, and back to large-- several times.
                    
                        First Air Bag Developed
    Fisher Body had overall charge designing an air bag system and producing them for high-end 1974-76 GM cars. Geared to make 100,000 at Fisher plants in Euclid, O. and Flint, Mich., only 10,000 were sold in the three years and the project was dropped.
     The division also had responsibility for implementing the federal regulation calling for an ignition interlock system that went into 1974 cars, making it impossible to start the car without first buckling up.  But a public outcry finally led to a Congressional repeal of the federal standard a year later.
    Fisher Body later began designing automatic (passive) belt systems as reglations developed to require either air bags or automatic belts.  At the moment both systems have been placed on the back burner by the government as most experts realize that the present belts found on all cars are lifesavers-- if people are convinced to wear them.
    As the decade progressed, Fisher Body moved into metrics with the Chevette becoming the first all-metric designed car for GM.  Four GM divisions ended the convertible era in 1975.  In its place, Fisher was assigned the role of designing "hole-in-the-roof" products such as he sun roof and T-tops.
    As fuel costs multiplied, tighter energy policies evolved and Fisher plants, which earlier had spent millions changing from coal boilers to oil and gas, were now faced with changing back to coal because of oil shortages.  Fisher engineers helped solve this problem by inventing the side-stream separator to filter coal exhaust-- and Fisher shared this invention cost-free with other industries.
    Plants shut off all unnecessary power to conserve and even lights were turned out.  But some plants became dark unwillingly as car sales slumped in the mid-70's and some 90,000 GM workers alone were on indefinite layoff.

For the first time, the sight of boat loads of small cars being unloaded at American docks seemed more than a temporary threat.  It was then that bumper stickers appeared warning: "Don't Drive Your Job Away... Buy GM Products."
     After the Chevette mini-car in 1976 came the downsized and lighter full-sized models in 1977, the mid-sized in 1978, and eventually the entire fleet.  Now work has begun on a second round of downsizing-- all involving Fisher Body.
            Takes On Corrosion, Paint Jobs
     During the decade, Fisher Body was assigned corporate responsibility for combating corrosion, and within a few years it was possible to offer a three-year warranty against rust-through.  The division also took over all paint responsibility.  This job was complicated by new federal regulations on plant emissions and all of GM's painting processes are now being changed.
    The decade also saw Fisher Body branch beyond U.S. borders with a plant opened this year in Mexico and other plants scheduled next year in Ireland and another in Spain by 1982.
    For the first 20 years of its existence, Fisher Body's chief raw material was wood.  Then it became steel.  But the 1970's, with its quest for lighter vehicles, saw some plants making foam products with the Syracuse, N.Y. plant became the division's first all-plastics plant. 
    In fact, doing things the way they've never been done before turned out to be the normal way of doing business in the auto industry during the decade.
    And as the curtain drops tonight on the drama of the 70's, there's only hope that the script of the 1980's will be a great deal more serene.
    

In 1984 the Body by Fisher Plants closed their doors forever.