Ed Cole, GM board member Cliff Goad, and Bunkie Knudsen. National Automotive History Collection. Photo from www.chevyhardcore.com

Edward “Ed” Cole served as president and chief operating officer (CEO) of General Motors for the last seven years of a 44 year career at the company. Cole was preparing for a legal career when he began attending Grand Rapids Junior college but was sidetracked by automotive mechanics when he took a summer job with Hayes Body Corporation. Cole decided to enroll in the General Motors Institute in 1930.

Ed Cole and the ’60 Corvair. Photo from gmheritagecenter.com

Before graduation, Cole was chosen to be a part of a special engineering project at Cadillac that would take him away from the institute and directly to work with GM’s Cadillac Motor Car Division. Cole advanced through the division quickly and was promoted to the chief engineer of Cadillac in 1946 on his way to the works manager in 1950. During his tenure, Cole was instrumental in helping develop Cadillac’s landmark high compression, short stroke overhead valve V8 engine.

Continuing to work and rise through the Cadillac team, Cole was noticed by Chevrolet general manager Tom Keating who requested Cole to be reassigned as a chief engineer. In 1952, Cole became chief engineer of the Chevrolet Division where his first task was to develop a new engine for Chevy that would replace the reliable Stovebolt Six engine. Cole responded by leading the engineering team that developed Chevrolet’s small-block V-8 that dominated the Chevy engine lineup for 50 years. Cole was promoted to general manager of Chevrolet in 1956.

Video of Ed Cole’s induction into the Corvette Hall of Fame:

As the general manager of Chevrolet, Cole led the division into pursuing the compact car market by developing the Corvair. The unique nature of the car caught the attention of everyone, including Time magazine, who put Cole on their cover on October 5, 1959. Cole was promoted to head the GM car and truck group in 1961, then to executive vice-president in 1965, and to president in 1967.

Ed Cole and the Rotary Engine. Photo from gmheritagecenter.com

During his term as president of the corporation, Cole was responsible to guiding the company through several major projects which included the air cushion restraint system (air bags) and implementation of catalytic converters to comply with federal regulations and the clean air act. Cole was the mastermind behind lower compression ratios in powerplants designed to run on unleaded fuel.

At the time of his retirement in 1974, Ed Cole held eighteen separate patents but he will probably always be known for his leadership in introducing the catalytic converter to automotive engineering.

Sadly, Edward N. Cole died piloting his private twin-engine Beagle B206 Series 2 plane in a crash during a storm, near Kalamazoo, Michigan on May 2, 1977. Cole was 67 years old at the time of his death. The crash was about 50 miles south of where he was born.