Word: 1950s
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...resignation of Stempel, a popular "car guy" who was the first engineer since the 1950s to run the company, stunned employees who had heralded him not long ago as an automotive redeemer who would bring out the best in GM. Like soldiers in a conquered army, many roamed aimlessly last week along the corridors of the company's limestone-clad Detroit headquarters. The ouster shook even Stempel's union adversaries, who feared what life would be like after the boardroom coup led by John Smale, 65, the hard-charging retired chairman of Procter & Gamble. Smale has emerged as a possible...
...more than just symbolic terms, GM's crisis ranks as the most dramatic culture shock in the transition of American industry from the fat years of the postwar era to the lean years of today. During the 1950s, GM's gas-hogging V- 8s and exuberant tail-finned sedans reflected the confidence of a nation newly arrived at superpower status, with seemingly unlimited resources and skyrocketing productivity. "With GM, you were really talking about a bold vision of America," says Harley Shaiken, a professor of work and technology at the University of California at San Diego. Former chairman Charles ("Engine...
...around the world. With more than 715,000 employees in 35 countries, GM meets $22.5 billion in payrolls from Prague to Kuala Lumpur and buys supplies from 28,000 companies. GM's U.S. auto business accounts for roughly 1.5% of the American economy, down from about 5% in the 1950s...
Rudolph Marcus, 69, Canadian-born researcher at the California Institute of Technology; his theoretical work, done mostly in the 1950s and '60s, describes how and why chemical reactions differ in the speed at which they proceed, based on mathematical analysis of how electrons move and atoms change their positions. His work, according to the citation, "has greatly stimulated experimental developments in chemistry...
Edmond Fischer, 72, and Edwin Krebs, 74, a scientific team for nearly 40 years, both emeritus professors at the University of Washington in Seattle; a colleague described them as "quintessential gentleman scholars." They were honored for their discovery in the 1950s of a mechanism cells use to regulate a range of metabolic processes. "We stumbled on it," said Fischer. The mechanism, reversible protein phosphorylation, a key to maintaining life in cells, has paved the way for research into cellular phenomena and diseases. Said the citation: "Their fundamental finding initiated a research area which today is one of the most active...