Louis Chevrolet

Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (; December 25, 1878 – June 6, 1941) was a Swiss-American race car driver, mechanic and entrepreneur who co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911. Early life Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was born on December 25, 1878, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, canton of Neuchâtel, a center of watchmaking in northwestern Switzerland. He was the second child of Joseph-Félicien Chevrolet, a watchmaker, and Marie-Anne Angéline Mahon. His family was originally from Bonfol, now in the canton of Jura. In 1887, Chevrolet left Switzerland along with his father to settle in Beaune, France. There, as a young man, he developed his mechanical skills and interest in bicycle racing. During this period, Chevrolet invented a wine pump, which he built from a defective one-cylinder motor mounted on a three-wheeled bicycle.