Obituaries - June 27, 1999
Geoff Lawson; Car Designer for Jaguar
Geoff Lawson, 54, the chief designer for Jaguar Cars Ltd. who had a major role in the British auto maker’s recent revival. Lawson, described in the British press as a burly, mustachioed man, was born in Leicester, England. He got a degree in furniture design at the Royal College of Art. His final year thesis, however, was on American cars--one of his lifelong passions. He first went to work for Vauxhall, the British subsidiary of General Motors, as a designer in 1969. He later worked for General Motors in the United States before becoming Jaguar’s styling director in 1984. He played a key role in the design and styling of all Jaguars introduced in the past 15 years, including the XJ6 and XJ8 sedans, the XK8 roadster and, most recently, the S-type sedan. “His greatest gift was the ability to recognize the importance of classic styling cues from great Jaguars of the past,” said Jaguar Chairman Wolfgang Reitzle, “and then translate them into modern Jaguars in a new and contemporary fashion.” Lawson, however, once said that he was never a big fan of British cars. He did connect with American cars and listed a ’69 427 Corvette among his prized possessions. On Thursday in London of a stroke.
Frederick Trump; Real Estate Executive
Frederick Trump, 93, New York construction magnate who launched son Donald’s glitzy real estate empire. The elder Trump was the son of a Swedish immigrant restaurateur and a seamstress who began building and selling single-family homes in Queens when he was 19. He eventually made millions on luxury houses and high-rises in Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island. Donald joined his father’s business in 1968 after earning an undergraduate degree at the Wharton School and began pushing his father to expand their considerable holdings, which amounted to more than 20,000 homes and apartments in New York by the early 1970s, as well as buildings in New Jersey and Florida. Donald, who took over in 1976, favored developments in Manhattan, which the elder Trump had avoided as too risky. “I gave Donald free rein,” Trump said. “He’s gone way beyond me.” He helped bankroll Donald’s first major deal, his purchase of the Commodore Hotel, which he turned into the Grand Hyatt. Donald went on to build glittering high-rises and casinos, including the opulent 68-story Trump Tower and Harrah’s at Trump Plaza, the world’s largest hotel-casino when it opened in Atlantic City, N.J., in 1984. In 1992, Trump helped bail out another of Donald’s casinos, the Trump Castle Casino Resort in Atlantic City. An attorney acting on behalf of the Trump patriarch bought 670 $5,000 chips at a high-stakes blackjack table, essentially giving Donald an interest-free $3.35-million loan. Trump Castle later agreed to pay a $30,000 penalty because the loan was made in violation of New Jersey gaming laws. On Friday at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York of complications of pneumonia.
