• Born Signius Wilhelm Poul Knudsen on March 25, 1879, in Copenhagen, Denmark
• Arrived in New York in February 1900; a shipyard foreman wrote down his name as William S. Knudsen and said he would be known as Bill
• Moved to Buffalo, N.Y., to work at a manufacturing company; Ford bought it in 1911 and moved him to Detroit
• Moved to GM in 1922 and became head of Chevrolet
• Named GM president in 1937
• Went to Washington in 1940 to head war production
• Died April 27, 1948
William S. Knudsen found two seemingly contradictory traits in Americans when he arrived from Denmark in 1900 at age 20. "They were very friendly, and they loved to fight with their fists," he said. "I was more or less forced to become a boxer. When I worked in the shipyards, fistfights were almost a matter of daily routine."
