Chuck Buchanan—The Engineer's Engineer
“Let’s just think about this for a minute.”
—Chuck Buchanan
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Visionary, inventor, teacher, manager, mentor, and dedicated member of the Engineers Club of Dayton, Chuck Buchanan was a prolific inventor in the automotive industry with 122 patents to his name.
Automotive engineer Chuck Buchanan excelled at innovation and at mentoring others to invent. Buchanan’s most noted patents for variable speed wipers typified his dual focus of enhancing safety and the driving experience.
Photos courtesy of Diane Buchanan Johnson.
Photos courtesy of Diane Buchanan Johnson.
Chuck Buchanan: The engineer's enginee
By Mark Martel
Next time you get in a car or truck, thank Chuck. One of his ideas is probably in whatever vehicle you drive today. Besides developing power sliding van doors and automatic windshield wipers, Chuck Buchanan amassed many patents in a wide range of automotive systems. Various sources listed 30, 68 even 95 patents. The latest total turned out much higher. He was perhaps proudest of an invention he never patented—retrofitting a stairway with an elevator to help his mother down stairs.
Chuck worked on the parts of cars that make our driving experiences safer, more convenient and refined. Power windows that know just when to stop, van doors that slide open for overburdened arms yet remain secure against curious children, windshield wipers that dance the rain away without a squeak. Chuck helped make it all more human.
Born two days before Pearl Harbor on Dec 5, 1941, “Chuck” Harry Charles Buchanan grew up in the farm town of Marengo, Illinois, northwest of Chicago. His father Harry Buchanan, Sr. was a feed salesman. Donna Buchanan passed on firm-mindedness to her son, though Chuck could also be more demonstrative. Donna was a “tough nut,” and played catcher with the Rock-Ola Music Maids in the National Girls Baseball League, the rival league to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League later featured in the film A League of Their Own. The film’s lead character played by Geena Davis could have been modeled after Donna Buchanan, while a young boy resembling Chuck appeared in the film as well. Chuck eventually played sports himself and was captain of his high school football team.
A challenging high school math teacher helped Chuck excel in physics, science and math. He tinkered on the farm out of the necessity to keep tractors and trucks running. Many farm boys became engineers for similar reasons. Buchanan built a radio for his parents that he set into their headboard for listening in bed. The dual-purpose interface would reappear in his career. Today his widow Diane shows a kitchen pull-out countertop that Chuck designed to hold a laptop on one side, or flip over to make bread on, which he did often.
Chuck’s grandfather innovated. While working on railroad pylons crossing a river he came up with the idea of using a hose of high-pressure water to excavate holes for pilings. Chuck’s father became a different sort of engineer late in life—a railroad engineer.
When Chuck was about college age he and his father invested in hogs. They lost their shirts when hoof and mouth disease destroyed the livestock. That may be why Chuck graduated the University of Illinois with a General Engineering Degree at the slightly advanced age of 25.
Chuck worked his first engineering job part-time while still in school, developing a telescopic antenna that could be deployed off a railroad track.
As President of the Psi Upsilon fraternity he met Chicagoan Diane Meyer in the Phi Mu sorority. They soon married and in 1966 moved to Dayton, Ohio for his job with the Delco Products Division of General Motors.
At first Chuck worked downtown in the Delco factory building on First Street, today’s Mendelson’s Warehouse. He was part of the group that lunched at the Engineers Club regularly, rubbing elbows with earlier generations of Club members. “He worked for my Grandfather at Delco Products,” notes automotive engineer Steve Smith, who Chuck sponsored for Club membership in 2000.
In 1967 Delco Products moved its engineering to nearby Kettering where Chuck would spend most of his career. The company ownership changed repeatedly. Delco Products was split off and became Delphi, then was sold to the German company ITT, and sold again to the French company Valeo. But Chuck stayed based out of the same desk and office until retirement.
Chuck gained wide experience across the engineering departments, from Windshield Wiper Systems to Engine Cooling Motors, Suspension Systems, and Motors and Compressors. While under the Delco Products banner Chuck was promoted to Staff Engineer, first in Suspensions, then in Windshield Wiper Systems and later in Advanced Wiper and Actuator Engineering.
In 1994 ITT Industries bought the Wipers and Motors Business unit and Chuck was named manager for Advanced System Engineering.
Advanced development typically worked 4-5 years ahead on new vehicles. Chuck found that he liked the more creative work, which included lock motors and electric windows. He built the first variable damping shock absorber in the U.S., which helped pioneer semi-active ride vehicles. As Advanced Development Manager, Chuck worked on a wide range of vehicle technologies including suspension, braking, cooling and more.
It was a small, close-knit group. In a crisis Chuck would stop and say “let’s just think about this for a minute.” His positive attitude was contagious. Chuck and patent attorney Gordon Lewis spoke almost daily about engineering topics. Many like Gordon considered Chuck their best friend.
Chuck mentored many as well. He was a people person who motivated others and drove brainstormers to “get to item 25.” Chuck felt the first 10 ideas were often commonplace, and the next dozen ideas were usually silly or stupid, but eventually something deeper might arise. He also sought to involve and mentor new talent. Against legal advice he sometimes allowed a young engineer to get the credit on a patent. Chuck should have had many more patents.
Peter Zhou worked with Chuck for about 15 years at GM, ITT, and Valeo. “And all the time he was one of my best friends… He helped me a lot at work and at off-work time. He even helped my daughter on teaching her English for a certain time in the evening when my daughter came to the U. S. for just a few months. I do not see other bosses that can not only help his/her subordinates, but also help his/her subordinates’ family members. Chuck is very special.”
Chuck’s mentoring began at home. He inspired his kids to want to do well and please him.
Chuck motivated them to be the best they could, telling them “it’s like you to do well.” Without that, daughter Christine says “I would likely have fallen short of my potential.”
He launched others into projects. When son Kevin’s Chevette died, Chuck got Kevin into the garage and both began with the manual. Once Kevin was off and running Chuck disappeared.
One crash project involved finishing the basement in 4 days, including drywall finishes and wallpaper. Kevin said, “He helped me to be a do-it-yourselfer and save a kaboodle of money and open my imagination to new things.” Kevin Buchanan is now a mechanical engineer turned electrical engineer. Daughter Dr. Christine Weller is a family physician.
According to Peter Zhou, Chuck's style of innovating focused on creating rapid prototypes, doing research and field-testing the resulting inventions.
When car stylists lowered car hoods and enlarged windshields, Chuck made the new designs workable through electric powered cooling and new wiper systems. His back to basics approach re-examined materials, mechanics and manufacturing processes to discover new solutions.
He once brought home a test vehicle with a red laser that stopped the power windows from closing if they sensed a blockage. Or that was the theory. On the second try they pinched wife Diane.
Another time Chuck drove up in a Corvette with a sharply slanted windshield, trying out a wiperless wiper. Special Dow Corning glass plus experimental coatings seemed to obviate the need for wipers. The prototype worked well…except at slow speeds near home, where most driving takes place. Another concept used cameras to detect rain droplets to trigger the wipers automatically. Any idea was fair game.
Chuck also co-created a combined radio and CB antenna, contributed to idea for an antenna embedded in the window, and developed "brake-by-wire" systems.
Some of Chuck’s best-known patents include dancing wipers, wipers auto-refilling via rainwater, retractable antennae, an acceleration reaction clutch with override capability and numerous sliding door systems.
For ITT the Buchanans took many trips to Germany, extending the circle of friends.
The French firm Valeo, Inc. bought the ITT unit in 1998 and made Chuck Senior Valeo Expert in Wipers. He stayed until his retirement in 2004. Valeo honored him several times for his prolific and profitable inventions.
Gordon Lewis recalls, “He was clearly a team player. At Valeo there were three parallel engineering groups, in Paris, Stuttgart and Michigan. They were forced to work in three geographic areas, with three languages and three cultures. That was a challenge to deal with but Chuck just thrived on that. Diane was a help since she taught French.”
For Valeo Chuck began commuting, spending four weekdays in Detroit and driving back to Dayton for weekends. While in Detroit he came across I-TRIZ, a problem-solving system for invention used by companies like GM, Ford and IBM. I-TRIZ sought to reduce the time needed to invent and to bring to market better products. Chuck would soon test both claims at Valeo.
Chuck initially paid for his own I-TRIZ training from partners Boris Zlotin and Zion Bar-El. “Chuck would work from 8-5 or 6 and then come over from about 8 and stay until 11 or 12 learning about I-TRIZ,” says Boris. He came weekly, studied, worked, drank beer at their house.
Boris was very surprised Chuck held so many patents, and felt that his inventions were very beautiful. He seldom saw an inventive type that was also open to structured methodical systems like I-TRIZ.
“In all 19 years in our business since November 1992, we never had a guy like Chuck,” Zion notes. “Chuck was a very strongly analytical person and also had a very good imagination.” The combination was unusual—one side might produce a good scientist, the other might create an artist, but together you got an inventor.
Chuck promoted I-TRIZ so well that the Paris headquarters invited the consultants to help solve a major problem. In 2001-02, as Valeo neared a major launch involving 68 patents they discovered a Japanese company held 4 patents that could cause infringement problems. With little time to fix the problem Valeo enlisted I-TRIZ to help leapfrog the competitor. Chuck worked on the U.S. front of the international effort.
One reason Chuck never pursued a patent for his elevator idea was that he recognized inventing on your own could be tougher. Someone had to source it, protect it, and promote, as he learned from fellow Dayton inventor John Janning. Working for a company gave Chuck regular access to patent advice and a new friend.
For patent attorney Lewis, Chuck was a bridge buddy, cigar buddy and a very accomplished cook. Lewis has dealt with many inventors over 35 years. Chuck was “one of the most unique and creative individuals I was ever involved with. It’s overused, but he really was able to think outside of the box.
“Most engineers when given a project will do it by what already exists, they’ll do it much the same way out of their inertia. It’s a rare engineer or scientist who can set aside conventional technology or wisdom. Chuck was able to do that. He saw the big picture. I saw many inventors who would focus on one area, but Chuck was always looking for what was new.
“There was a bit of an entrepreneur in him. He could get very frustrated when his current employer wouldn’t take advantage of some new technology. That’s probably why TRIZ was so appealing to him.”
Most people interviewed for this article gave the tally of patents for Chuck Buchanan at around 68. Gordon Lewis searched the QPAT commercial database in March 2011 and found nearly double the number—122 worldwide patents under Chuck’s name or reassigned to his employers. Some patents could still be pending.
In his last year with Valeo Chuck was given a choice of what to work on. He focused on how to develop the next generation of solutions through directed evolution.
Like many, the I-TRIZ partners felt Chuck was a close friend. They would work and party together, staying at each others’ homes when in Dayton or Detroit.
And because so many people felt the same way about Chuck, Zion notes that he had a very beautiful retirement party.
Chuck continued consulting in his field. He remained a voracious reader on many subjects, and an accomplished cook who liked to surprise guests with flames to the ceiling for Bananas Foster.
Chuck Buchanan’s full resume includes his role as National Vice President of the U.S. Jaycees, service as Dayton Section President of Society of Automotive Engineers in 1996-97, his Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement for Dayton by the Engineering and Science Foundation and Affiliate Society Council of Dayton in 1998, and his service to Normandy United Methodist Church.
Chuck was also president of the Engineers Club of Dayton during the turbulent 2001-2002 term. He helped keep the club private after a faction sought to make the club the centerpiece of the public Riverscape MetroPark. He and other club members helped put the club back on a solvent, private footing. Long time club member John Bosch said Buchanan “showed a lot of leadership in some of the toughest times the Engineers Club went through.” Another peer, Ben Graham, called Chuck “an engineer’s engineer.” Chuck continued to serve the club until his passing.
Chuck spent his free time sailing, mastering the skills of pilot and captain and teaching others to work the charts. Besides the Great Lakes, Chuck and wife Diane sailed the Caribbean and even the Adriatic with German co-worker friends. The Buchanans traveled widely through much of Europe, South Africa, the Americas, Antarctica, New Zealand, and Australia.
Diane thinks he would want to be remembered as someone who loved kids. Chuck did experiments with his kids and four grandkids, teaching about water vortexes, rotating walls, building and flying kites, making robots and more. He explained things in a way kids could get. Daughter Christine would complain he would go back to the beginning of time; it took longer but she learned it.
When Chuck learned the daughter of the receptionist at the Engineers Club was doing poorly at math, he took them to lunch and spent the whole time telling the girl how math could be fun. He didn’t tolerate fools but had the patience to teach the willing, according to Diane.
In 2005 Chuck and Ideation started an I-TRIZ franchise in Dayton, though not much came from it. Chuck was a great innovator if not a great salesman, though he did earn the highest certification given.
Buchanan passed away September 2, 2009 at age 67, after 44 years of marriage. His ashes were spread from a sailboat.
Chuck made significant contributions to the auto industry. Much of what he worked on is invisible to the public, known only to those on the inside. Yet those contributions are right at our fingertips anytime we turn on the wipers, open the door or power down the windows. Thanks again, Chuck.
Next time you get in a car or truck, thank Chuck. One of his ideas is probably in whatever vehicle you drive today. Besides developing power sliding van doors and automatic windshield wipers, Chuck Buchanan amassed many patents in a wide range of automotive systems. Various sources listed 30, 68 even 95 patents. The latest total turned out much higher. He was perhaps proudest of an invention he never patented—retrofitting a stairway with an elevator to help his mother down stairs.
Chuck worked on the parts of cars that make our driving experiences safer, more convenient and refined. Power windows that know just when to stop, van doors that slide open for overburdened arms yet remain secure against curious children, windshield wipers that dance the rain away without a squeak. Chuck helped make it all more human.
Born two days before Pearl Harbor on Dec 5, 1941, “Chuck” Harry Charles Buchanan grew up in the farm town of Marengo, Illinois, northwest of Chicago. His father Harry Buchanan, Sr. was a feed salesman. Donna Buchanan passed on firm-mindedness to her son, though Chuck could also be more demonstrative. Donna was a “tough nut,” and played catcher with the Rock-Ola Music Maids in the National Girls Baseball League, the rival league to the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League later featured in the film A League of Their Own. The film’s lead character played by Geena Davis could have been modeled after Donna Buchanan, while a young boy resembling Chuck appeared in the film as well. Chuck eventually played sports himself and was captain of his high school football team.
A challenging high school math teacher helped Chuck excel in physics, science and math. He tinkered on the farm out of the necessity to keep tractors and trucks running. Many farm boys became engineers for similar reasons. Buchanan built a radio for his parents that he set into their headboard for listening in bed. The dual-purpose interface would reappear in his career. Today his widow Diane shows a kitchen pull-out countertop that Chuck designed to hold a laptop on one side, or flip over to make bread on, which he did often.
Chuck’s grandfather innovated. While working on railroad pylons crossing a river he came up with the idea of using a hose of high-pressure water to excavate holes for pilings. Chuck’s father became a different sort of engineer late in life—a railroad engineer.
When Chuck was about college age he and his father invested in hogs. They lost their shirts when hoof and mouth disease destroyed the livestock. That may be why Chuck graduated the University of Illinois with a General Engineering Degree at the slightly advanced age of 25.
Chuck worked his first engineering job part-time while still in school, developing a telescopic antenna that could be deployed off a railroad track.
As President of the Psi Upsilon fraternity he met Chicagoan Diane Meyer in the Phi Mu sorority. They soon married and in 1966 moved to Dayton, Ohio for his job with the Delco Products Division of General Motors.
At first Chuck worked downtown in the Delco factory building on First Street, today’s Mendelson’s Warehouse. He was part of the group that lunched at the Engineers Club regularly, rubbing elbows with earlier generations of Club members. “He worked for my Grandfather at Delco Products,” notes automotive engineer Steve Smith, who Chuck sponsored for Club membership in 2000.
In 1967 Delco Products moved its engineering to nearby Kettering where Chuck would spend most of his career. The company ownership changed repeatedly. Delco Products was split off and became Delphi, then was sold to the German company ITT, and sold again to the French company Valeo. But Chuck stayed based out of the same desk and office until retirement.
Chuck gained wide experience across the engineering departments, from Windshield Wiper Systems to Engine Cooling Motors, Suspension Systems, and Motors and Compressors. While under the Delco Products banner Chuck was promoted to Staff Engineer, first in Suspensions, then in Windshield Wiper Systems and later in Advanced Wiper and Actuator Engineering.
In 1994 ITT Industries bought the Wipers and Motors Business unit and Chuck was named manager for Advanced System Engineering.
Advanced development typically worked 4-5 years ahead on new vehicles. Chuck found that he liked the more creative work, which included lock motors and electric windows. He built the first variable damping shock absorber in the U.S., which helped pioneer semi-active ride vehicles. As Advanced Development Manager, Chuck worked on a wide range of vehicle technologies including suspension, braking, cooling and more.
It was a small, close-knit group. In a crisis Chuck would stop and say “let’s just think about this for a minute.” His positive attitude was contagious. Chuck and patent attorney Gordon Lewis spoke almost daily about engineering topics. Many like Gordon considered Chuck their best friend.
Chuck mentored many as well. He was a people person who motivated others and drove brainstormers to “get to item 25.” Chuck felt the first 10 ideas were often commonplace, and the next dozen ideas were usually silly or stupid, but eventually something deeper might arise. He also sought to involve and mentor new talent. Against legal advice he sometimes allowed a young engineer to get the credit on a patent. Chuck should have had many more patents.
Peter Zhou worked with Chuck for about 15 years at GM, ITT, and Valeo. “And all the time he was one of my best friends… He helped me a lot at work and at off-work time. He even helped my daughter on teaching her English for a certain time in the evening when my daughter came to the U. S. for just a few months. I do not see other bosses that can not only help his/her subordinates, but also help his/her subordinates’ family members. Chuck is very special.”
Chuck’s mentoring began at home. He inspired his kids to want to do well and please him.
Chuck motivated them to be the best they could, telling them “it’s like you to do well.” Without that, daughter Christine says “I would likely have fallen short of my potential.”
He launched others into projects. When son Kevin’s Chevette died, Chuck got Kevin into the garage and both began with the manual. Once Kevin was off and running Chuck disappeared.
One crash project involved finishing the basement in 4 days, including drywall finishes and wallpaper. Kevin said, “He helped me to be a do-it-yourselfer and save a kaboodle of money and open my imagination to new things.” Kevin Buchanan is now a mechanical engineer turned electrical engineer. Daughter Dr. Christine Weller is a family physician.
According to Peter Zhou, Chuck's style of innovating focused on creating rapid prototypes, doing research and field-testing the resulting inventions.
When car stylists lowered car hoods and enlarged windshields, Chuck made the new designs workable through electric powered cooling and new wiper systems. His back to basics approach re-examined materials, mechanics and manufacturing processes to discover new solutions.
He once brought home a test vehicle with a red laser that stopped the power windows from closing if they sensed a blockage. Or that was the theory. On the second try they pinched wife Diane.
Another time Chuck drove up in a Corvette with a sharply slanted windshield, trying out a wiperless wiper. Special Dow Corning glass plus experimental coatings seemed to obviate the need for wipers. The prototype worked well…except at slow speeds near home, where most driving takes place. Another concept used cameras to detect rain droplets to trigger the wipers automatically. Any idea was fair game.
Chuck also co-created a combined radio and CB antenna, contributed to idea for an antenna embedded in the window, and developed "brake-by-wire" systems.
Some of Chuck’s best-known patents include dancing wipers, wipers auto-refilling via rainwater, retractable antennae, an acceleration reaction clutch with override capability and numerous sliding door systems.
For ITT the Buchanans took many trips to Germany, extending the circle of friends.
The French firm Valeo, Inc. bought the ITT unit in 1998 and made Chuck Senior Valeo Expert in Wipers. He stayed until his retirement in 2004. Valeo honored him several times for his prolific and profitable inventions.
Gordon Lewis recalls, “He was clearly a team player. At Valeo there were three parallel engineering groups, in Paris, Stuttgart and Michigan. They were forced to work in three geographic areas, with three languages and three cultures. That was a challenge to deal with but Chuck just thrived on that. Diane was a help since she taught French.”
For Valeo Chuck began commuting, spending four weekdays in Detroit and driving back to Dayton for weekends. While in Detroit he came across I-TRIZ, a problem-solving system for invention used by companies like GM, Ford and IBM. I-TRIZ sought to reduce the time needed to invent and to bring to market better products. Chuck would soon test both claims at Valeo.
Chuck initially paid for his own I-TRIZ training from partners Boris Zlotin and Zion Bar-El. “Chuck would work from 8-5 or 6 and then come over from about 8 and stay until 11 or 12 learning about I-TRIZ,” says Boris. He came weekly, studied, worked, drank beer at their house.
Boris was very surprised Chuck held so many patents, and felt that his inventions were very beautiful. He seldom saw an inventive type that was also open to structured methodical systems like I-TRIZ.
“In all 19 years in our business since November 1992, we never had a guy like Chuck,” Zion notes. “Chuck was a very strongly analytical person and also had a very good imagination.” The combination was unusual—one side might produce a good scientist, the other might create an artist, but together you got an inventor.
Chuck promoted I-TRIZ so well that the Paris headquarters invited the consultants to help solve a major problem. In 2001-02, as Valeo neared a major launch involving 68 patents they discovered a Japanese company held 4 patents that could cause infringement problems. With little time to fix the problem Valeo enlisted I-TRIZ to help leapfrog the competitor. Chuck worked on the U.S. front of the international effort.
One reason Chuck never pursued a patent for his elevator idea was that he recognized inventing on your own could be tougher. Someone had to source it, protect it, and promote, as he learned from fellow Dayton inventor John Janning. Working for a company gave Chuck regular access to patent advice and a new friend.
For patent attorney Lewis, Chuck was a bridge buddy, cigar buddy and a very accomplished cook. Lewis has dealt with many inventors over 35 years. Chuck was “one of the most unique and creative individuals I was ever involved with. It’s overused, but he really was able to think outside of the box.
“Most engineers when given a project will do it by what already exists, they’ll do it much the same way out of their inertia. It’s a rare engineer or scientist who can set aside conventional technology or wisdom. Chuck was able to do that. He saw the big picture. I saw many inventors who would focus on one area, but Chuck was always looking for what was new.
“There was a bit of an entrepreneur in him. He could get very frustrated when his current employer wouldn’t take advantage of some new technology. That’s probably why TRIZ was so appealing to him.”
Most people interviewed for this article gave the tally of patents for Chuck Buchanan at around 68. Gordon Lewis searched the QPAT commercial database in March 2011 and found nearly double the number—122 worldwide patents under Chuck’s name or reassigned to his employers. Some patents could still be pending.
In his last year with Valeo Chuck was given a choice of what to work on. He focused on how to develop the next generation of solutions through directed evolution.
Like many, the I-TRIZ partners felt Chuck was a close friend. They would work and party together, staying at each others’ homes when in Dayton or Detroit.
And because so many people felt the same way about Chuck, Zion notes that he had a very beautiful retirement party.
Chuck continued consulting in his field. He remained a voracious reader on many subjects, and an accomplished cook who liked to surprise guests with flames to the ceiling for Bananas Foster.
Chuck Buchanan’s full resume includes his role as National Vice President of the U.S. Jaycees, service as Dayton Section President of Society of Automotive Engineers in 1996-97, his Award for Outstanding Professional Achievement for Dayton by the Engineering and Science Foundation and Affiliate Society Council of Dayton in 1998, and his service to Normandy United Methodist Church.
Chuck was also president of the Engineers Club of Dayton during the turbulent 2001-2002 term. He helped keep the club private after a faction sought to make the club the centerpiece of the public Riverscape MetroPark. He and other club members helped put the club back on a solvent, private footing. Long time club member John Bosch said Buchanan “showed a lot of leadership in some of the toughest times the Engineers Club went through.” Another peer, Ben Graham, called Chuck “an engineer’s engineer.” Chuck continued to serve the club until his passing.
Chuck spent his free time sailing, mastering the skills of pilot and captain and teaching others to work the charts. Besides the Great Lakes, Chuck and wife Diane sailed the Caribbean and even the Adriatic with German co-worker friends. The Buchanans traveled widely through much of Europe, South Africa, the Americas, Antarctica, New Zealand, and Australia.
Diane thinks he would want to be remembered as someone who loved kids. Chuck did experiments with his kids and four grandkids, teaching about water vortexes, rotating walls, building and flying kites, making robots and more. He explained things in a way kids could get. Daughter Christine would complain he would go back to the beginning of time; it took longer but she learned it.
When Chuck learned the daughter of the receptionist at the Engineers Club was doing poorly at math, he took them to lunch and spent the whole time telling the girl how math could be fun. He didn’t tolerate fools but had the patience to teach the willing, according to Diane.
In 2005 Chuck and Ideation started an I-TRIZ franchise in Dayton, though not much came from it. Chuck was a great innovator if not a great salesman, though he did earn the highest certification given.
Buchanan passed away September 2, 2009 at age 67, after 44 years of marriage. His ashes were spread from a sailboat.
Chuck made significant contributions to the auto industry. Much of what he worked on is invisible to the public, known only to those on the inside. Yet those contributions are right at our fingertips anytime we turn on the wipers, open the door or power down the windows. Thanks again, Chuck.
Dayton Innovation Legacy is a multimedia website and educational resource about Engineers Club of Dayton members who represent a living history of innovation for over 100 years. Dayton Innovation Legacy was made possible in part by the Ohio Humanities Council, a State affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. |