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Martin G. Gabriel, or Marty as he is known, has demonstrated a flair for writing since his college days when he was feature editor of the collegiate newspaper, Technology News, while at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago. He received his B.S.M.E. degree there in 1947 and later went onto receive his M.S.E.M. degree at the University of Michigan in 1955. Beginning his working career at Borg Warner Corporation in the Chicago area, Marty’s interest in torque converter research was whetted there under the direction of V.J. Jandasek. Marty was fortunate to have had the opportunity to study under the tutelage of Ernst W. Spannhake of Trilok Research Society of Germany, where Spannhake refined the Schneider torque converter system, and emigrated after World War II to briefly teach at IIT. While at Borg Warner, Marty contributed to the intense development of what was to become the first Ford production automatic transmission, the Ford-O-Matic. In 1950, Marty joined Jandasek at Ford Research in Dearborn, and after a varied career in torque converters and transmissions and reliability engineering, he retired from Ford in 1995 as senior reliability engineer. He is the author of twelve U.S. patents in the field, including a variable-speed multi-element converter that obviated the need for any gears. His later Ford assignments included spearheading the first powertrain activity to support 100,000-mile objectives and reliability programs in the powertrain quality office.
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