Eight inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame

Inductee Jack Telnack, retired vice president of design at Ford Motor Co., best known as the lead designer of the original Ford Taurus.

Three automotive pioneers, a designer, a racing legend and a journalist were among eight inductees into the Automotive Hall of Fame last night in suburban Detroit.

William Metzger was honored for contributing to the industry’s early growth, including the establishment of the nation’s first independent car dealership in Detroit in 1897. Also honored were John North Willys, whose Willys-Overland Motor Co. was briefly the second-largest automaker in the United States, and Paul Galvin, co-founder of Motorola Inc. Robert Galvin, who steered Motorola after his father’s death in 1959, also was inducted.

The Hall of Fame’s other new members are Jack Telnack, former head of design at Ford Motor Co.; Mort Schwartz, founder of the Global Automotive Aftermarket Symposium; Phil Hill, the first American to win the Formula 1 World Drivers Championship; and Bob Irvin, a Detroit News reporter who became editor-at-large at Automotive News and associate publisher of AutoWeek.

In addition, the Hall of Fame named four recipients of its Young Leadership & Excellence Award. They are Lisa Drake, chief engineer for global hybrid strategy at Ford; Trang Hamm, president of Kuni Automotive’s Smart Center Portland and Smart Center Denver; Mathew Hargett, chief engineer at Honda R&D Americas Inc.; and David Nowicki, Ford’s manager of advance program engineering.