Manufacturing Legend Dick Dauch Dies at 71

Richard Dauch, the hard-charging co-founder of American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., died on Friday at age 71.

Dauch was AAM's CEO from the company's creation in 1994 until 2012, when his son David succeeded him in that job. The senior Dauch also served as the company's executive chairman from 1997 until his death.

He attended Indiana's Purdue University on a football scholarship and earned a degree in industrial management there in 1964. He credited his football experience for inspiring his determination, self-discipline and competitiveness.

Dauch launched his professional career at General Motors Co. in 1964, becoming at the age of 30 GM's youngest plant manager ever. He advanced through increasingly important manufacturing jobs at GM before moving to Volkswagen of American in 1976. There he became a member of the board and headed U.S. manufacturing operations.

In 1980 Lee Iacocca recruited him to help revive Chrysler Corp., which was losing $7 million per day at the time. Dauch's successful strategy focused on quality and achieved more flexible work rules with the United Auto Workers union.

Dauch led a group of investors who bought several ailing factories from GM to create American Axle in 1994. In his book American Drive published last autumn, he described the appalling physical condition of the plants and complained of an unmotivated workforce that was afflicted with a sense of job entitlement and an 18%-plus absenteeism rate.

Undeterred, Dauch soon whipped AAM into shape, generating huge profits. He also helped cut crime in the area around its Detroit headquarters and manufacturing complex by buying and bulldozing several drug houses, liquor stores and neighborhood bars.

But Dauch's blunt views about organized labor and insistence on major concessions also caused friction, triggering a bitter UAW strike in 2008 that resulted in a 64% wage reduction. Last year the company shut down its Detroit production center after failing to convince workers there to accept an additional 33% cut in hourly pay.

Dauch has been repeatedly honored for his business achievements and can-do entrepreneurial spirit. He also helped establish a business college at Ashland University and a manufacturing management center at Purdue.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Aug. 7 at the First United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Mich. The Dauch family suggests memorial tributes go to the Richard E. Dauch Memorial Fund in Troy, Mich., to support research on pancreatic cancer.