Bangor born Richard Parry-Jones, Ford’s former group vice-president of global product development, has died in an accident on his farm in Wales, according to reports.
Parry-Jones, 70, had a distinguished engineering career at Ford spanning nearly 40 years. He will be best remembered for bringing a new, much higher standard of vehicle dynamics to Ford’s European cars, starting with the Mondeo in 1993 and working through the range to the all-important 1998 launch of the Focus, which set new standards for cars of its type across the world.
His success led to his appointment as Ford’s chief technical officer, which put him in charge of 30,000 engineers worldwide. It also widened his influence to the many Ford-owned marques of the time, including Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Volvo and Aston Martin. The position also allowed him to spread his philosophy of dynamic excellence across Ford’s own global portfolio, where it continues to thrive today.
The improvement of Ford’s vehicles through the 1990s and 2000s was highly influential on rival companies like Volkswagen, Renault, the PSA Group and Opel-Vauxhall: Parry-Jones’s benign influence also brought improvement to every one of his company’s major rivals. At one stage he was courted by VW’s Ferdinand Piëch, but elected to stay with the company he had joined as a graduate trainee in 1969.
50 Metre Test
In developing automobile dynamics, Parry-Jones became well known for suggesting that a great deal could be learned about a vehicle’s dynamics within a simple 50 Metre Test, rather than testing the vehicle at top speed, Parry-Jones insisted that engineers drive very slowly for 50 metres, sensing the subtleties of the vehicle’s dynamics, suggesting that “an engineer could learn more from the 50-metre test than laps at the limits around the track.”
Parry-Jones credited the racing driver Sir Jackie Stewart with influencing his approach to testing cars, saying “Jackie was tremendously helpful and influential with my approach. He’s not an engineer so he can’t fix cars, but he can extract information about a car’s behaviour in an uncannily detailed and superb way.
Environmentalism
Parry-Jones has embraced environmental initiatives. In a 2000 speech to the Society of Automotive Engineers at The Greenbrier, Parry-Jones said, “What our society wants us to do is to invent the technology to make personal, private transportation sustainable. People expect engineers to do the right thing. It’s as if we had taken some kind of Hippocratic oath. And our profession has been around nearly as long as medicine itself.”
Awards
Parry-Jones was named Man of the Year in 1994 by the British publication Autocar and in 1997 by Automobile Magazine.
In 2001, he received the Golden Gear Award for Outstanding Automotive Achievement from the Washington Automotive Press Association,[10] and was honoured as Marketing Statesman of the Year by the Sales and Marketing Executives of Detroit.
He was an elected Fellow of both the Royal Academy of Engineering and Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
In 2004 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society in recognition of his pioneering work in the application of statistical methods to automobile engineering.[10] He was appointed a CBE in the 2005 New Year Honours for services to the automobile industry.
In 2005 Parry-Jones received an Honorary Fellowship by his ‘home’ University of Wales in the North Wales town.
In 1995 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Loughborough University in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the motor industry and engineering education.[10] He was also a Visiting Professor and Fellow at the university.
Tribute
Ford chairman Bill Ford said: “Richard Parry-Jones was a rare talent who left an indelible mark on Ford and the industry. As an engineer, he was a virtuoso with an uncanny feel for creating cars that were dynamic and incredibly fun to drive. I can tell you that going on a test drive with him was not for the faint of heart.
“His passion for great cars and love of motoring inspired legions of engineers and enthusiasts in Europe and around the world. Richard will be deeply missed and our heart goes out to his family and loved ones.”
