Marvin Travis Runyon

Marvin Travis Runyon (September 16, 1924 – May 3, 2004) was an American business executive. After a long career as a manufacturing executive at Ford Motor Company, he retired, and was then was the U.S. head of Nissan for several years. He later served as chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and as U.S. Postmaster General. He was a forceful and charismatic figure who picked up the nicknames "Marvelous Marv" and "Carvin' Marvin".

Although born in Fort Worth, Texas, he graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School (Dallas, Texas) in 1942 and started working for Ford at the now-closed Dallas Assembly Plant in 1943, where his father was also employed. He served in the United States Army Air Forces later during 1943 to 1945 and returned to Ford. After graduation from Texas A&M University in 1948 he began to climb in management, making the rounds through Ford assembly plants in Atlanta, Georgia, and Lorain, Ohio, during the 1950s.

He was a plant manager during the 1960s.Leading up to the opening of the Talbotville (St. Thomas) assembly plant in 1967 he lived in London, Ontario Canada while he supervised the opening and staffing of this plant.

He became an executive at the assembly operations headquarters in 1969 and became assembly division general manager in 1972. From 1973 to 1977 he was vice-president in charge of powertrain and chassis operations, then became vice president in charge of vehicle assembly and body stamping operations in 1978. When he retired at the end of 1980 it was widely rumored that he was going to head all Nissan operations in the United States, but that announcement did not come until several days after he had actually retired.

In 1981 Runyon became the chief executive of Nissan North America and supervised the construction of its assembly and engine plants in Smyrna, Tennessee. These plants became among the most productive in the auto industry.

...
Wikipedia