The Three Musketeers (Studebaker engineers)

The Three Musketeers is a nickname given to a team of three famous Studebaker engineers, Frederick Morrell Zeder, Owen Ray Skelton, and Carl Breer. These three men would later become the core engineers that started the Chrysler Corporation. Chrysler surrounded himself with the finest engineers available when he started Chrysler Corporation and the Three Musketeers were such people.

The nucleus of the team initially formed when Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company selected twenty-five university graduates of mechanical engineering to go through their two-year apprenticeship course. Zeder and Breer were two such students picked in 1909 and became close friends during the course.

Skelton was a design engineer with Packard Motor Car Company as a transmission specialist. Zeder asked Skelton to join him at Studebaker in 1914. Zeder later asked Breer to join the two of them at Studebaker in 1916, which completed the trio. They became the Zeder, Skelton and Breer Engineering (ZSB) group.

In 1919 the three moved to Willys-Overland on the invitation of Walter P. Chrysler (Vice President and general manager). Zeder, Breer, and Skelton were compared to the fictional Three Musketeers, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Chrysler was referred to as d'Artagnan, The Three Musketeers captain and leader. The three engineers went to work on designing a new car with a new engine in 1920 and 1921 in Willys' engineering center in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Chrysler in 1919 was working for Willys-Overland in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was making a million dollars a year, an astronomical amount in those days. He invited the three engineers, Zeder, Breer and Skelton, to come over to Willys. The ZSB engineering team moved to Willys and their assignment was to fix engineering problems on the existing Willys 6 cylinder engine car in production and to produce a brand new car design from inside out at the same time. The three engineers determined that the 6 cylinder car was a major redo and obsolete compared to the new car they had just designed. The new Willys car to come out in 1920 was to be called a "Chrysler" and a colossal sign of incandescent lights spelling this out was built on top of the Willys plant (see photo to right).

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