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Hi all,
Just curious. Is there any connection between Dave Packard one of the founders of Hewlett Packard and the Packard Motor car Company founders?
Terry

Don't forget Packard wire. I have wondered about this myself.

I'm reasonably sure I read that there was no relation between Hewlett-Packard and the PMCC or Packard Electric.
Packard wire is a different story. The Packard brothers started an electrical business making wire, light bulbs etc.
GM bought Packard Electric and merged it with Dayton Electric Co - not sure of the date. Dayton Electric is of course DELCO.

Believe Packard Electric, later Delphi, out in Warren, Ohio was tied in also, although i do believe they're finally closed.

Delco morphed into Delphi, not closed but in severe finanacial trauma after severance from GM.

Delphi lived on preferential treatment from GM, now separate and some pieces hived off like Inteva.

Traumjagercat

The father, Warren, had a very successful hardware business in Warren, Ohio. At one point he was selling railroad ties for the Transcontinental Railroad. There was a very large house that he built in downtown Warren. It was torn down in the 1970's to build a YMCA. The town now regrets that that was allowed to happen. The building that housed the hardware business still stands one the square. The family built a number of other structures in the town

The Packard script we all love was the trademark of the hardware business. It is on the marker on the family plot in the local cemetery. James Ward and his wife are buried a little ways away, with a much larger monument.

James Ward and William Doud ( "Ward" and 'Doud" in Warren) had a electric cable business, Packard Electric and a light bulb business, The New York and Ohio Company.

Packard Electric was sold To GM and became part of Delphi. At the time of the Centennial they employed about 6500 people in Warren. That plant is now closed.

New York and Ohio was sold to General Electric in the 1930's. There is a building from that period on the site of the original light bulb plant. Commemorative plaques from 1949 and 1999 are attached to this building.

Both brothers were rather small of build and somewhat retiring in nature.

Doud was the business/numbers part of the team. His health was never robust, and he died in 1923-24. His money was left for a Packard Park, a Packard Music Hall, and a Packard Concert Band, all of which exist today.


Ward died in 1928, At this point, PMCC started putting the Packard family crest on the cars. His money was left to the Engineering Department at Lehigh University , his alma mater. There is a Packard Engineering Building. PMCC donated the first Packard to Lehigh in 1930, and it lives in a glass case on the first floor of the Packard Building.

Ward was very fond of technology and machinery. One of his favorite toys was an x-ray machine. He took lots of pictures, particularly of himself. He died from bone cancer


Regards


John Harley

Thanks for the replies guys.
At car shows over here Folks come up and say "I like your Rolls Royce" and after I've explained that it is not Roller but a Packard,the next statement is, "I did'nt know Hewlett Packard made cars"
This then leads on to explanation about Packard.
With your info I now have a few more facts at my disposal.
Regards
Terry

Wonder if over exposure to X-Rays was the cause of that bone cancer?

Anyways, Packard Electric grew to have several "plants" around the warren area. Was one on N River road (which intersects with larchmont, the corner of the two of which the main plant(s) was on.) and one in Cortland, down the road from my shop.

Also, was one on Thomas Rd. in Warren behind the cemetery on 169. Stimulus funds were lent recently to help a local company that employs a decent amount of people partially renovate and move into there from their 3 warehouses that were too small and spread out into one big one. They're one of my customers and when i'm working there i love digging in the areas that haven't been touched yet and have abandoned Delphi stuff there. (Like a peg board with a transmission wiring harness for each type of then-current gm tranny).

There was a GE Light Bulb plant in operation for ever in the North manufacturing district of Warren, by Dana street and some more steel companies, north on park avenue of down town before you hit river road. It's closed now, but I wonder if that was the original light bulb plant you speak off? It was active until a handful of years ago, and lots of people still worked there when i was a kid. My parents always referred to it as the bulb plant so your description piqued my interest. It's a giant red brick monstrosity, so it could be from the 30's easily.

As a kid we would always go sled riding at Packard Park. Larger kids played ball there, but when i was small we played up the river a bit in Perkins Park. My high school graduation was in the Packard Music Hall, and I've seen the nutcracker there a few times (which is honestly a great showing).

It's crazy you grow up around all this stuff but you never really realize the history behind all of it. The Packard name is still entrenched in Warren even after all these years. As JHH mentioned, all of the Delphi plants and the light bulb plants are closed as far as i can recall. There were a couple with small crews working but they're pretty much done now.

Quote:
Not exactly.

GM spun off many of its component operations into a separate, single group back in 1991 - including Delco Chassis, Inland Fisher Guide (brake linings, seating, and lighting), Harrison (radiator), Packard Electric, and Saginaw (steering). The AC Rochester (spark plug and fuel systems) and Delco Remy divisions were brought into the fold, later. The (nondescript) Delphi name arrived 1995. Delco Electronics continued on with GM for a time, but was eventually folded into Delphi, as well. Delphi was spun-off completely from GM in 1999.

However, GM retained rights to the AC and Delco names - still in force, today, as ACDelco. Unfortunately, that operation is little more than smoke and mirrors; it neither manufactures nor warehouses anything, but simply markets parts from outside suppliers, with ACDelco (licensed) packaging. No wonder GM couldn't find a buyer for that operation when they put it up for sale last year!

Over they years, Delphi sold off some of its component operations - apparently an attempt to float their boat.

Many of the former Delco Remy operations seem to have coalesced as as Remy International, which still produces generators and starters - among other things. Now, I believe Remy is licensing the Delco-Remy name from GM, but they actually compete against GM's own parts business by selling direct to the aftermarket. Yet, they aren't the only former GM operation doing that.

Perhaps the "castaways" will have the last laugh.