Roy D. Chapin
American businessman (1880–1936)
Roy Dikeman Chapin Sr. (February 23, 1880 – February 16, 1936) was an American industrialist and a co-founder of Hudson Motor Company, the predecessor of American Motors Corporation. He also served as the United States secretary of commerce from August 8, 1932, to March 3, 1933, during the final months of the administration of President Herbert Hoover.
Early life
Chapin was born on February 23, 1880, in Lansing, Michigan, the son of Edward Cornelius Chapin and Ella Rose King. He attended Lansing High School. He enrolled at the University of Michigan, but left in 1901 to take position with Olds Motor Works in Detroit.
In 1914, Chapin married the former Inez Tiedeman, the daughter of George Tiedeman, former mayor of Savannah, Georgia (1907–1913). The couple had six children. One son, Roy D. Chapin Jr., would also pursue a career with Hudson Motor Company and eventually leading American Motors Corporation (AMC).
Commercial interests
Chapin was general sales manager of Olds Motor Works from 1904 to 1906.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q373072. VIAF identifies the subject as 45788298. The Library of Congress control number is n86114210. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1880, 1936, 1932 and 1933.
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This entry incorporates text from “Roy D. Chapin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.