Helen Rother - First Female GM Designer

Helene Rother (1908–1999) was (according to Wikipedia) the first woman to work as an (American) automotive designer.  Although far from it, she was the first recognized by the Automotive Hall of Fame for "her influence on the styling and design of vehicle interiors.” Rother was trained at the School of Applied Arts in Hamburg and later at the Bauhaus School. In 1932, Rother gave birth to her daughter and lifelong companion, Ina Rother. The father, Erwin Ackerknecht, who would later be active in the French Resistance and apart from her for years while on the run, moved them to Paris in 1933.  For an income, Helen created popular jewelry shaped like animals. She fled the Nazi occupied France in 1940 when she and her daughter squeezed into a mail truck with six other people, along with eight show cats, a Siamese cat, and a couple canaries. No one was going to chance leaving their prize pets to the Nazis. They were first evacuated to a refugee camp in Casa Blanca, then in 1941 to New York City where she was an illustrator for Marvel Comics.

After two years there, she moved to Detroit to work for General Motors. She joined the interior styling staff and was responsible for upholstery colors and fabrics, lighting, door hardware, and seat construction.

In 1947 she established her own design consulting business and was soon contracted by Nash Motors and styled the elegant interiors of most of the cars from 1948 to 1956. In 1948 she published a technical paper with the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) asking "Are we doing a good job in our car interiors?"  Her presentation at the annual conference marked the first time that a woman addressed the SAE.

In 1953 she bought a 200-acre farm in far-off Metamora and made the 96 mile round trip commute to Detroit for work.