Willys, John N(orth) (1873–1935)

US industrialist. He organized a car sales company and in 1907 bought out the Overland Company in Indiana and moved it to an abandoned factory in Toledo, Ohio. By 1910 he had produced and sold 18,200 Willys-Overland cars. In 1919 he organized the Willys Corporation, a short-lived holding company.

He was born in Canandaigua, New York, and began his career when in 1897 he bought a factory in Elmira, New York, specializing in bicycles.

Financial troubles in the car business forced its liquidation in 1921. Having sold his Willys-Overland Company stock for $25 million in 1929, he became US ambassador to Poland (1930–32). In 1933 his financially troubled car company went into receivership with Willys as receiver and president; he died suddenly without resolving the company's finances.