David C. Collier*

David Collier was born in Hardisty, in the Canadian province of Alberta, in 1929, one day after the great stock market crash. He was one of five children of a traveling Nazarene preacher. Collier helped his family financially by selling newspapers and polishing marble in a monument factory, and working in a creamery.

Collier enjoyed school and wanted to be a teacher. By the age of 19, he had earned a teaching certificate from the University of Alberta and was educating 28 children from first through ninth grades in a one-room schoolhouse. His salary was $1,500 a year, plus $7 a month for janitorial services.

Unhappy with his job, Collier resolved to join the Royal Canadian Air Force, but just days before he was to report for duty, he went to the doctor to be treated for a cold and learned he had tuberculosis. Determined to fight the debilitating disease, Collier spent the next 12 months in a sanitarium in Edmonton and nine more months recuperating at home. After his recovery, he found a job selling stocks and bonds for Investors Syndicate in Edmonton.

While visiting his father's church in Montana, he met his future wife, Eleanor, also a native Canadian. After their wedding, she worked as a social worker, and Collier enrolled in a business course at the University of Montana, finishing his bachelor's degree in 18 months. "We were poor as church mice," he says, "but I saw a brochure about the Harvard Business School and figured a couple more years of poverty wouldn't hurt us."

Following graduation from Harvard, he joined the GM comptroller's staff in Detroit. Seven years later, he was transferred back to his native Canada as assistant comptroller of General Motors Canada. During that period, he and Eleanor became U.S. citizens.

Collier returned to Detroit as director of GM's product programs. From that point on, he rose rapidly through the ranks. He became treasurer of the corporation, then was promoted to president of GM Canada and in 1977 was named general manager of Buick, a GM division. Collier went on to serve in other executive capacities, including vice president in charge of the finance group in New York. When he retired from GM in late 1984, he was chief executive in charge of the operating staff.

Collier's advice to young people: "Don't grab for the money in the beginning of your career. Grab for something worthwhile in the long run. The money will come later."