Lee Iacocca grew up as a blunt-spoken, patriotic son of immigrants, and rose to become president of the Ford Motor Company and later, chief executive officer of the Chrysler Corporation.

Born Lido Anthony Iacocca in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in 1924, Iacocca earned an engineering degree from Lehigh University and a masters degree from Princeton University before joining Ford Motor Company as a student engineer in 1946. After less than a year he talked his way into a sales job and, at the age of thirty-three, became the head of all national car marketing at the company's Detroit headquarters. He became vice president and general manager of the Ford Division in 1960.

In his new position, Iacocca recognized the growing power of the youth market and organized a team to design a car for it. Iacocca repackaged the engine and platform from the moderately successful Ford Falcon and placed...