Background
Kaufman Thuma Keller was born on November 27, 1885 in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Zachariah Keller, a farmer of modest means, and Carrie Thuma.
Kaufman Thuma Keller was born on November 27, 1885 in Mount Joy, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Zachariah Keller, a farmer of modest means, and Carrie Thuma.
Keller graduated from the local high school in 1901. Later he enrolled in a one-year secretarial program at Wade Business College in nearby Lancaster.
From 1904 until 1906 Keller traveled throughout Great Britain as secretary to a Baptist minister who was lecturing for the temperance cause. On his return, Keller went to work as a secretary at the Westinghouse Machine Company works in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After working in the office for about a year, he accepted a cut in pay in order to take a two-year special apprenticeship as a machinist. He had worked with machinery as a boy and quickly showed an adult talent for the craft at Westinghouse. When the firm won a contract in 1909 to manufacture automobile engines, Keller, although he had just completed machinist training, was named assistant to the superintendent of the auto engine department. Keller moved in 1910 to the booming automotive center of Detroit to work as chief inspector in the axle factory at Detroit Metal Products.
In November 1911, after brief jobs at the Metzger, Hudson, and Maxwell motor car companies, where he deliberately sought to broaden his range of experience in the industry, Keller joined the central staff of General Motors, working chiefly with the Cadillac division. There, he met Walter P. Chrysler, a rising young executive some years his senior. After a few unhappy months with Cole Motors in Indianapolis, Keller was hired by Chrysler in 1916 to work as general master mechanic for the Buick division of General Motors. General Motors assigned Keller to a variety of increasingly responsible positions: he became a member of the central mechanical engineering staff in 1919, vice-president of Chevrolet in 1921, and general manager for all Canadian operations in 1924.
On April 1, 1926, Keller accepted his old friend Chrysler's invitation and returned to Detroit as vice-president in charge of manufacturing for the recently established Chrysler Corporation. He joined the board of directors the following year. Keller achieved wider recognition in 1928 when he returned the troubled Dodge division to profitability within a year of its acquisition. Chrysler telephoned from New York late one afternoon and said, "Go over and take charge of the Dodge plant. We have just taken it over. " Keller was on the job within half an hour. His achievement was rewarded with the presidency of the Dodge division in 1929; he was widely regarded as the second-ranking executive of the Chrysler Corporation, where he had the title of general manager from 1930. Although Keller was named president of the corporation in 1935, Chrysler, the chairman of the board, was clearly the chief executive officer. Only when Chrysler's health failed in the late 1930's did Keller take full command, and the change was not official until Chrysler died in August 1940.
World War II brought production problems to which Keller's talents were ideally matched. He had always been a hard-driving manager, never more so than when pushing the massive Detroit tank plant into production in 1941. He remained active in defense matters after the war and served as chairman of a special commission to expedite production of guided missiles between 1950 and 1953. At Chrysler, he resigned as president and assumed the revived office of chairman of the board in 1950, continuing in that office until his retirement from the company in April 1956. For several months in 1957 he was a director of Loew's, Inc. , but he was not an active participant in the well-publicized struggle for control of the company.
Keller made his reputation as an efficient plant manager who understood both machinery and personnel. The Chrysler Corporation was consistently profitable during his leadership, and he always demanded a high level of efficiency throughout the company, particularly in manufacturing. The company became second among the world’s largest auto producers, with sales exceeding $1 billion in 1947. Keller received many awards and honors during his lifetime. In 1946, President Truman awarded him the Medal for Merit for his contribution during World War II. In 1954, he received the Air Force Exceptional Service Award.
Keller was an active member of the Army Ordnance Association.
Keller's character was summed up by a Detroit friend on the occasion of his sixty-fifth birthday: "K. T. never went social or got high-and-mighty. He's just plain vanilla. "
Keller's chief recreation was fishing, either in Florida waters or in nearby Lake St. Clair. He also quietly played an active role at the Detroit Institute of Arts. He was appointed to the city arts commission and to the museum's fund-raising Founders Society in 1942. Keller's special interest, which he shared with his wife, was Chinese ceramics, and several of his gifts are displayed at the Detroit Institute. He also donated funds for expansion of the museum and for the purchase of paintings, furniture, and stained glass.
Keller's private life was quiet. He married Adelaide Taylor on September 21, 1911; they had two children. The Kellers never participated in the publicized social whirl of the wealthy Detroit automotive families.
