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Bill Mitchell
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William L. Mitchell (July 2, 1912 — September 12, 1988) was an important General Motors designer from the late 1930s to 1977 per GM's mandatory 65 age retirement. He succeeded Harley Earl as Vice President for Styling in 1958. Though Earl had great respect for Mitchell and appointed him as his successor, the men had diametrically opposed styling philosophies. Earl favored bloated bodies festooned with gimmicky effects and chrome trim, while Mitchell favored smoothly sculptured, unadorned shapes that let their artful sculpting provide the drama.
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William L. Mitchell (July 2, 1912 — September 12, 1988) was an important General Motors designer from the late 1930s to 1977 per GM's mandatory 65 age retirement. He succeeded Harley Earl as Vice President for Styling in 1958. Though Earl had great respect for Mitchell and appointed him as his successor, the men had diametrically opposed styling philosophies. Earl favored bloated bodies festooned with gimmicky effects and chrome trim, while Mitchell favored smoothly sculptured, unadorned shapes that let their artful sculpting provide the drama. The transition between the two designers' regimes came at precisely the right time, as the garish excesses of the fifties had run their course and Mitchell had a fresh approach that perfectly fit the times.
In the sixties, Mitchell promoted what he called the "sheer look," a "shoulderless" drop off from a car's windows to its sides.
Mitchell gave GM designers the assignment of combining Rolls Royce and Ferrari styling cues to create Buick's classic 1963 Riviera, originally intended for Cadillac Division. An encounter with a shark while skin diving in the Bahamas inspired Mitchell's Corvette Shark show car, his SS racer and the production 1963 Corvette Stingray, largely designed by Larry Shinoda under Mitchell's direction. Mitchell's quirky fondness for split rear windows as featured on the 1957 Buick and 1963 Corvette Stingray coupe wasn't shared by his fellow stylists or the buying public and both cars dropped the feature after public resistance.
William "Bill" Mitchell's staff appreciated his ribald sense of humor. He was known as one who enjoyed adult beverages and the occasional party. In addition to his work in the auto industry, Mitchell was also an accomplished artist.
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