Auto industry
David Dunbar Buick
1854–1929 · inventor, founder of Buick
Scottish-born Detroit plumber and inventor who founded the Buick Motor Company, lost it within a few years, and died nearly broke in Detroit in 1929.
- Born
Arbroath, Scotland- Died
Detroit, Michigan
aged 74- Also known as
- David Buick
- Detroit years
- 1856–1904; 1920s–1929
- Field
- Auto industry
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Buick was born in Arbroath, Scotland, in 1854 and came to Detroit with his family at the age of two. He left school in 1869 to help his widowed mother and went to work for a Detroit maker of plumbing goods. When the firm ran into trouble in 1882 he and a partner bought it, and Buick proved a gifted inventor, patenting a lawn sprinkler and a method of bonding white enamel to cast iron that made porcelain bathtubs affordable. Gasoline engines drew him away from the business; the partnership broke up in 1899 and he founded the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company. Short of money, he borrowed from Benjamin Briscoe and in 1903 formed the Buick Motor Company, which soon moved to Flint and passed to William C. Durant, who built it into the base of General Motors. Buick left in 1906, lost his money in later ventures and ended up teaching at the Detroit School of Trades. He died in 1929 and is buried in Woodmere Cemetery.
Highlights
- Founded the Buick Motor Company in 1903
- Invented a method of enameling cast iron, making white bathtubs affordable
- Founded the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company, Detroit, 1899
- Worked as an instructor at the Detroit School of Trades late in life
- Buried in Woodmere Cemetery, Detroit
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Buried here · 1929
Woodmere Cemetery
Buick was buried here after his death in March 1929; Henry M. Leland, founder of Cadillac and Lincoln, also lies in Woodmere.