Who Was Harley Earl?

The latest Buick ads focus on Tiger Woods (I know who he is) and Harley Earl (never heard of him). The commercials portray Harley Earl as some mythic car engineer in the commercials, and you wonder who was Harley Earl? Was he real, or some advertising invention? If he was real, why would an advertisement glorify someone you had never heard of? Turns out Harley Earl was real, was larger than life, was responsible for many, many innovations in car design for General Motors from 1927 to 1958, and largely unknown outside of the automotive industry. But you can read about the man and his life in an article from The Palm Beach Post here, and browse a web site dedicated to Harley Earl.