Knudsen, William Signius

Knudsen, William Signius (nd`sən), 1879–1948, American industrialist and U.S. government official, b. Copenhagen, Denmark. He emigrated to the United States at age 20, worked in various factories, and became production manager in the Ford Motor Company during World War I. Employed (1922) by the General Motors Corp., Knudsen became (1937) president. From 1940 to 1945, during World War II, he served successively as director of industrial production for the National Defense Commission, the Office of Production Management, and, as lieutenant general in the U.S. army, for the War Dept.

Bibliography

See biography by N. Beasley (1947).

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Knudsen, William Signius

 orig. Signius Wilhelm Poul Knudsen

(born March 25, 1879, Copenhagen, Den.—died April 27, 1948, Detroit, Mich., U.S.) Danish-U.S. industrialist. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1900. In 1914 he began supervising Ford Motor Co. assembly plants and directed the firm's construction of submarine patrol boats and other war matériel in World War I. He joined General Motors Corp. in 1922 and became president in 1937. He was appointed director of industrial production for the National Defense Research Committee and directed production of war matériel as head of the U.S. Office of Production Management.