Gordon M. Buehrig

American automobile designer who served as Duesenberg’s chief body designer from 1929 to 1933. He later contributed design work at Auburn, Raymond Loewy’s industrial design firm and Ford, and taught at Art Center College of Design.

Gordon Miller Buehrig was born in Mason City, Illinois, on 18 June 1904. The Henry Ford’s biographical finding aid places his first automobile-related job at Gotfredson Body in Wayne, Michigan, in 1924, before later work at Dietrich, Packard, General Motors, Stutz, Duesenberg, Auburn, Studebaker and Budd.

In a 1984 oral-history excerpt, Buehrig described moving from Gotfredson to Dietrich and Packard body engineering. He said that a pay cut took him to General Motors’ Art and Colour section, where his contribution to the 1929 Buick was the instrument panel; he subsequently became head of Stutz’s design department.

Automotive Hall of Fame dates his Duesenberg employment to 1929–1933 and identifies him as its chief body designer. A 1990 Los Angeles Times obituary attributes the unique Twenty Grand to Buehrig and states that it originally sold for $20,000.

Automotive Hall of Fame also records Auburn from 1933 to 1936, Raymond Loewy’s firm from 1944 to 1948, and Art Center teaching from 1965 to 1970. Its Ford start date conflicts with two other accessible records, so the profile does not assign one. Buehrig died at home in Grosse Pointe in January 1990, aged 85.