David Dunbar Buick was born in Arbroath, the son of a joiner named Alexander and known as Sandy. I have mentioned Buick before but today I am commemorating his remarkable roller-coaster of a life.
His family emigrated to the USA when he was just two, and after school, Buick started his working life in a factory which made plumbing items such as baths. He then raised the money to establish the Buick Auto-Vim company in 1899 with the aim of making entire cars. He managed to produce precisely one car before the company collapsed with crippling debts.
Durant won, and later founded General Motors, while Buick left the company which bore his name in 1904, though the Buick name continued to be used for decades for the quality range of vehicles produced by General Motors. He moved to Detroit but could not find any work, stating: “You know I’ve been to practically every one of my friends of the old days – millionaires now, everyone – and asked for a job, and none of them had anything for me.”
The contemporary American businessman Theodore F MacManus said: “He sipped from the cup of greatness, and then spilled what it held.”