Willard Nickel was married to Jenny Daniels in Toledo, Lucas County, Ohio. on November, 11, 1917.
Willard T. Nickel
Their first child was born on May 7, 1920. They lived at that time in a large house on Cherry Street in Toledo.
Willard married Jenny and her family. They shared the house with Truman and Bertha Daniels, Jenny's parents; Trudy and Perry MacDonald; Jenny's sister amd brother-in-law; and their two daughters, Jane and Suzanne.
He was a draftsman for Willys-Overland Motors. Willard was the only one with a steady job.
In 1922, Willard left his job in Toledo and moved to Flint, Michigan, where he got a job as a draftsman for Buick. Buick is the oldest still-active American automobile brands, and among the oldest in the world. Headquartered in Flint since 1904, Buick was the heart of the mega-mergers that became General Motors.
He worked there for the next 17 years, until 1939.
The early 1920s were good years for Buick. Willard and Jenny rented different houses around Flint, moving fairly frequently and bringing her mother and father along with them.
In 1926, Willard
bought a small house in Flint and moved his wife and two sons away from
the Daniels. They bought the house next door.
When the depression hit in 1929, they moved to a winterized cottage on Long Lake.
Three years later, Willard bought a farm near Grand Blanc, with over 100 acres, and cows, pigs, sheep and chicken. When they moved, there was no electricity or running water. He installed a bathroom and a tub. When the Rural Electrification Program was launched by Roosevelt, Willard wired the house, installed a pump and bought a frigidaire.
He also drove in to Flint every day to work at Buick. He was still supporting an extended family most of the time.
When the depression hit in 1929, they moved to a winterized cottage on Long Lake.
Three years later, Willard bought a farm near Grand Blanc, with over 100 acres, and cows, pigs, sheep and chicken. When they moved, there was no electricity or running water. He installed a bathroom and a tub. When the Rural Electrification Program was launched by Roosevelt, Willard wired the house, installed a pump and bought a frigidaire.
He also drove in to Flint every day to work at Buick. He was still supporting an extended family most of the time.
Willard was assigned to a progressively more challenging series of projects in his years at Buick.
When Buick moved the gear shift lever from the floor to the steering wheel, he worked on the development. When fellow GM brand Pontiac had difficulty with the transition, Willard was loaned to help them. He was picked up and driven to and from work every day in a special Buick roadcar during that project.
Another important story in Willard's career came in 1938 after GM President William Knudsen wrote a magazine article claiming there was no discrimination against non-college grads at General Motors. Willard took his career in his hands and wrote a letter to Knudsen saying that at Pontiac he was classified as a Draftsman because he had no college degree, even though he had to teach college kids how to do their jobs.
It worked. He was called into his Manager's office and chewed out -- but he was reclassified as an Engineer and received a pay increase. Soon he was selected to be part of a Special Products group of Engineers.
In 1940 that group became the core of the Engineering Department of the Allison Division in Indianapolis. Later he was transferred to the Rochester Products Group, then to Milwaukee and finally back to Flint as a part of the AC Sparkplugs Division.
