Ferdinand Alexander Porsche - designer of the 911 - dies at age 76

[MummyChunk]

From AB




Ferdinand Alexander Porsche dies

Stuttgart.

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, is mourning Professor
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. The Honorary President of the Supervisory
Board died on 5 April 2012 in Salzburg, aged 76. Matthias Müller,
President and Chief Executive Officer of Porsche AG, paid tribute to
Ferdinand Alexander Porsche's services to the sports car manufacturer:
"We mourn the death of our partner, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche.
As the creator of the Porsche 911, he established a design culture in
our company that has shaped our sports cars to this very day. His
philosophy of good design is a legacy to us that we will honour for
all time."

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was born in Stuttgart on 11 December 1935,
the oldest son of Dorothea and Ferry Porsche. Even his childhood was
shaped by cars, and he spent much of his time in the engineering
offices and development workshops of his grandfather Ferdinand
Porsche. In 1943 the family accompanied the Porsche company's move to
Austria, where he went to school in Zell am See. After returning to
Stuttgart in 1950, he attended the private Waldorf school. After
leaving school, he enrolled at the prestigious Ulm School of Design.

In 1958, F.A. Porsche, as he was known by his colleagues, joined the
engineering office of what was then Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG. He
soon proved his great talent for design by sculpting the first model
of a successor to the 356 model line out of plasticine. In 1962 he
took over as head of the Porsche design studio, creating a worldwide
furore one year later with the Porsche 901 (or 911). With the Porsche
911, F.A. Porsche created a sports car icon whose timeless and
classical form survives to this very day in what is now the seventh
911 generation. However, in addition to passenger cars, F.A. Porsche
also concerned himself with designing the sports cars of the 1960s.
His best-known designs include the Type 804 Formula One racing car or
the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS, now considered to be one of the most
beautiful racing cars ever.

In the course of the conversion of Porsche KG into a joint-stock
corporation in 1971/72, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, along with all
the other family members, stood down from the company's front-line
business operations. In 1972 he founded the "Porsche Design
Studio" in Stuttgart, the head office of which was relocated to
Zell am See in Austria in 1974. In the decades that followed, he
designed numerous classic gentlemen's accessories such as watches,
spectacles and writing implements that achieved global recognition
under the "Porsche Design" brand. In parallel, with his
team, he designed a plethora of industrial products, household
appliances and consumer durables for internationally renowned clients
under the brand "Design by F.A. Porsche". A strong and clear
design concept typifies all product designs created in his design
studio to date. The credo of his design work was: "Design must be
functional and functionality has to be translated visually into
aesthetics, without gags that have to be explained first." F.A.
Porsche: "A coherently designed product requires no adornment; it
should be enhanced by its form alone." The design's appearance
should be readily comprehensible and not detract from the product and
its function. His conviction was: "Good design should be
honest."

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche received numerous honours and awards both
for his work as a designer as well as for individual designs. For
example, in 1968 the "Comité Internationale de Promotion et de
Prestige" honoured him for the outstanding aesthetic design of
the Porsche 911 while the Industrial Forum Design Hannover (iF) voted
him "Prizewinner of the Year" in 1992. In 1999, the
President of Austria bestowed on him the title of Professor.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche retained a close lifelong association with
Porsche AG as a partner and member of the Supervisory Board. For
example, even after stepping down from front-line business operations,
he contributed to the design of Porsche's sports cars over many
decades and repeatedly steered the company in the right di-rection.
This was especially the case for the difficult period Porsche
experienced at the beginning of the 1990s. From 1990 to 1993, F.A.
Porsche served as President of the company's Supervisory Board, thus
playing a major role in Porsche A.G's eco-nomic turnaround. In 2005,
he stood down from his Supervisory Board role in favour of his son
Oliver and assumed the mantle of Honorary President of the Supervisory
Board.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche will be buried in the family grave at
Schüttgut in Zell am See, attended by his immediate family. An
official funeral service will be held in Stuttgart at a later date

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