"I Am Chairman Of Chrysler Corporation Always"

Lido (Lee) Anthony Iacocca was born Oct. 15, 1924, in Allentown, Pa., the son of Italian immigrants. His father ran one of the first car rental agencies in the country and passed on his love of the automobile to his son.

Iacocca and hip-hop icon Snoop Dogg appeared together in a television commercial this summer titled "Golf Buddies."

In 1946 he joined the Ford Motor Company, where he rose to become the company's president from 1970 to 1978.

He left Ford after a dispute with Henry Ford II and in 1978 became president and then chairman (1979) of Chrysler Corp., restoring the ailing automaker to economic health through shrewd financial policies, a $1.2 billion loan guarantee, and tax concessions granted by Congress.

In the 1980s, Iacocca also served as chairman of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and engineered Chrysler's $1.5 billion acquisition of American Motors.

Iacocca retired at the end of 1992. By then, his success, coupled with appearances in television commercials and his best-selling book, had made him one of the nation's best-known and most admired businessmen.

This past summer, Iacocca made a brief comeback as a Chrysler icon, pitching a price promotion on television along with stars such as Jason Alexander and Snoop Dogg. The ads reprised the "If you can find a better car, buy it" line that was Iacocca's trademark in the 1980s.

In return for his services, Iacocca and DaimlerChrysler agreed that his fee, plus a $1 donation for every vehcile sold from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2005, would be donated to the Iacocca Foundation for diabetes research.