Early days

Engel first joined General Motors

General Motors

General Motors Company , commonly known as GM, formerly incorporated as General Motors Corporation, is an American multinational automotive corporation headquartered in Detroit, Michigan and the world's second-largest automaker in 2010...

 as a student under Harley Earl

Harley Earl

Harley J. Earl was first Vice President of Design at General Motors. He was an industrial designer and a pioneer of modern transportation design. A coachbuilder by trade, Earl pioneered the use of freeform sketching and hand sculpted clay models as design techniques...

's watchful eye at GM's school of design. In 1939 he met classmates Joe Oros

Joe Oros

Joseph E. Oros was an automobile stylist for Ford Motor Company over a period of 21 years — known as the Chief Designer of the team at Ford that styled the original Mustang, and for his contributions to the 1955 Ford Thunderbird.Oros was born to non-English speaking Romanian parents...

 and George W. Walker

George W. Walker

George W. Walker was an industrial and automotive designer. His most notable work was the original Ford Thunderbird....

 at the school. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, Engel served four years in the U.S. Army as a mapmaker, in both the European and Pacific theaters of operation. He and Oros remained in touch throughout the war, and after the war when Oros took a position in Walker's design firm, he recommended that Engel be hired as well. Although Walker's firm had Nash

Nash

-Places:*Nash, Buckinghamshire, England*Nash, Herefordshire, England*Nash, Bromley, London Borough*Nash, Newport, Wales*Nash, Telford and Wrekin, former village in Shropshire, England*Nash, South Shropshire, England*Nash Lee, Buckinghamshire, England...

 as an account, Engel worked on designs for farm equipment, women's shoes and household appliances. However, when Walker obtained a contract with Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

 in 1947 (and dumped Nash), Engel and Oros went to work full-time designing automobiles. Engel and Oros were such close friends that Oros was best man when Engel was wedded to Marguerite Imboden.
While Oros worked under Walker on Ford car and truck designs, Engel concentrated on Lincoln

Lincoln (automobile)

Lincoln is an American luxury vehicle brand of the Ford Motor Company. Lincoln vehicles are sold mostly in North America.-History:The company was founded in August 1915 by Henry M. Leland, one of the founders of Cadillac . During World War I, he left Cadillac which was sold to General Motors...

 and Mercury

Mercury (automobile)

Mercury was an automobile marque of the Ford Motor Company launched in 1938 by Edsel Ford, son of Henry Ford, to market entry-level luxury cars slotted between Ford-branded regular models and Lincoln-branded luxury vehicles, similar to General Motors' Buick brand, and Chrysler's namesake brand...

 vehicles.

Ford

When Walker became Ford's vice president for design in 1955, he made Engel and Oros his lieutenants. The trio was responsible for most of the ever-increasing sizes of Ford's late 1950s models, and their ornate chrome adornments.

Engel and Oros came up with competing designs for the 1958 Thunderbird. Oros's four-seater design was ultimately chosen. Engel's team was instructed by Ford President Robert S. McNamara to add two more doors and two more seats to their roadster design - and that became the basis for the 1961 Lincoln Continental

Lincoln Continental

The Lincoln Continental is an automobile which was produced by the Lincoln division of Ford Motor Company from 1939 to 1948 and again from 1956 to 2002...

. McNamara had considered terminating the Lincoln brand, along with the Edsel

Edsel

The Edsel was an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company during the 1958, 1959, and 1960 model years. The Edsel never gained popularity with contemporary American car buyers and sold poorly. Consequently, the Ford Motor Company lost millions of dollars on the Edsel's development,...

, after the 1960 model year. The Continental, however, convinced him to keep the line going, and it became such a success it was credited with saving the brand. Engel also scaled down the Ford Thunderbird

Ford Thunderbird

The Thunderbird , is an automobile manufactured by the Ford Motor Company in the United States over eleven model generations from 1955 through 2005...

 and turned it into a four seater to create the 1959 Ford Anglia

Ford Anglia

The 1949 model, code E494A, was a makeover of the previous model with a rather more 1940s style front-end, including the sloped, twin-lobed radiator grille. Again it was a very spartan vehicle and in 1948 was Britain's lowest priced four wheel car....

 105E, a popular saloon in Britain.

Chrysler

In 1961, Walker retired from Ford at age 65. When Eugene Bordinat

Eugene Bordinat

Eugene Bordinat, Jr. was a Ford Motor Company styling executive whose career spanned several decades.-Early career:...

, not Engel, was chosen as his replacement, the well-connected Walker helped orchestrate Engel's move to Chrysler in November 1961.

At Chrysler, Engel replaced chief stylist Virgil Exner

Virgil Exner

Virgil Max "Ex" Exner, Sr. was an automobile designer for numerous American companies, notably Chrysler and Studebaker. He is known for his "Forward Look" design on the 1955-1963 Chrysler products and his fondness of fins on cars for both aesthetic and aerodynamic reasons.-Early life:Born in Ann...

, who had designed the successful "Forward Look" models of the latter 1950s. Exner was responsible for the era of large tail fins; Engel was credited with replacing fins with a slab-sided look, reminiscent of his Lincoln Continental design. In truth, the fins were pretty much gone from Chrysler's styling studios before he arrived.

Engel generally delegated the majority of work to his design teams; he then would fine-tune the clay models with his touches. Co-workers said he had an uncanny eye for the "commercial viability" of designs.

Engel oversaw the design and development of the Turbine

Turbine

A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...

 cars (of which 50 were manufactured and road tested in 1963). The two-door model was said to strongly resemble his original two-door design for the 1958 Thunderbird, which had evolved into the '61 Continental. Although the Turbine never saw full production, Engel's design philosophy was perhaps best exemplified in the hulking 1965 Plymouth Fury

Plymouth Fury

The Plymouth Fury is an automobile which was produced by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation from 1956 to 1978. The Fury was introduced as a premium-priced model designed to showcase the line, with the intent to draw consumers into showrooms....

. Although most of Chrysler's legendary "Muscle Cars" were credited to specific designers, Engel oversaw, worked on, and approved all of them - and they remain his legacy at Chrysler design.

Retirement and death

Engel retired in 1973, but stayed on at Chrysler as a consultant until 1974.

Engel died of cancer on June 24, 1986.