O’Rear began his career in design while still a student at the Henry Ford Trade School in 1937 working in the Ford Design Department. He was hired full time after a few years and worked on a variety of tasks from sketching to modeling. In 1941, he moved to Murray Body, and in 1942 he was hired at Chrysler. O’Rear served in WWII and returned to Chrysler in 1946 developing cantilever construction and modernizing their studio. He left Chrysler in 1952 to run a series of his own businesses ranging from tool and die manufacturing to a cider mill. In his oral history, O’Rear discusses his time at the trade school and his trip to the World’s Fair as a student demonstrator. He describes the early Design Department in detail discussing the wide range of work he was able to work on in such a small department and also describing E.T. Gregorie, his design and managerial style. O’Rear goes into detail about early techniques of clay modeling and design. He goes on to talk about his time at Chrysler, first working on aircraft design during WWII and then his time after his service. He describes how behind the times Chrysler’s design department was and how he had to push to modernize the department and particularly his cantilever construction innovation. He wraps up his oral history discussing the businesses he had including Omega Tool and Die, Mechanical Tool and Engineering, a restaurant, subdivision development, and a cider mill.

Collection contains 3 cassettes, 3 WAV files, 3 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 1 loose transcript, 1 bound transcript, and a note (24 October 1996).

Related items: Acc. 189 Photographs for the Company Series box 41 P.189.14992 Emmett O’Rear Modeling Clay