Few people have been born into automotive royalty like Semon “Bunkie” Knudson. The son of former General Motors President William S. Knudsen, Bunkie was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps as he pursued an engineering education.

Graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1936, he was hired by GM in 1939 as part of the Pontiac division. Knudsen rose to management quickly and climbed the ranks with lightning speed. He became the general manager of the Detroit Diesel division in 1955 then accelerated to vice-president of the company and the general manager of the Pontiac Division in 1956.

Changing the Pontiac image into a youthful and performance-branded company, Knudsen hired some of the best young designers of the day. He brought in Pete Estes from Oldsmobile and John DeLorean from Packard.

Once Knudsen brought Pontiac into the performance limelight, he was promoted to the general manager of the Chevrolet division in 1961.

His love of performance models led Knudsen to introduce the Super Sport (SS) models to the performance lines of Chevrolet’s brands. He became an executive vice-president of GM in 1965 and it appeared that Knudsen would follow his father’s footsteps to become GM’s president. When Ed Cole was selected for the spot, Knudsen resigned and became the president of Ford Motor Company.

While he was at GM, Knudsen was responsible for pushing the performance program at both Pontiac and Chevrolet to levels that were previously unthinkable. Knudsen was brought into NASCAR as the National Commissioner until his death in 1998.