RIP: Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, creator of the 911

Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart, is mourning the loss of the father of the 911, Professor Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, the Honorary President of the Supervisory Board. He died on April 5, 2012, in Salzburg. He was 76 years old.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche, or F.A. Porsche as called by his colleagues, was born on December 11, 1935 in Stuttgart and was the eldest son of Dorothea and Ferry Porsche, and the grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, the founder of the Porsche car brand.

Automobiles dominated F.A. Porsche’s childhood as he spent plenty of time in Porsche’s construction areas and development workshops with his grandfather. In 1943, the family moved as well as the Porsche brand moved to Zell am See in Austria, where he attended school. He returned to Stuttgart in 1950 and furthered his education in the College of Design in Ulm.

In 1958, F.A. Porsche, started in the design office of the former Dr. Ing hc F. Porsche KG. His first model was the successor to the 356 series. In 1962, he became the head of the Porsche Design Studio and debuted the Porsche 901 (or 911) a year later. Elements of his design and vision still live on the seventh generation 911 today. F.A. Porsche also designed the Formula 1 racecar type 804 and the Porsche 904 Carrera GTS – still considered as one of the most beautiful racing cars ever.

He founded the ‘Porsche Design Studio’ when the Porsche car company was made into a limited company in 1971/72, which also saw the other family members retired from the car company’s business operations.

In 1974, the headquarters of Porsche Design was relocated to Zell am See in Austria. In the following decades, he designed a number of men’s watches eyewear and writing instruments. Under the brand “Design by FA Porsche”, he and his team penned a variety of industrial products, household appliances and consumer good for internationally known clients.

F.A. Porsche won countless honours and awards for his work as a car designer and his other designs. The “Comité International de Promotion et de Prestige” was honoured to him in 1968 for outstanding aesthetic design of the Porsche 911, while he was chosen as the Industrie Forum Design Hannover (iF) 1992 “award winners”. He earned the title of professor from the Austrian Federal President in 1999.

Ferdinand Alexander Porsche was a Porsche AG shareholder and board member. From 1990 to 1993, F.A. Porsche held the role of supervisory board chairman and thus had large share of the economic turnaround of Porsche AG. In 2005 he handed over his mandate to his son Ferdinand Oliver and took the position of honourary chairman of the supervisory board.

Matthias Müller, President and Chief Executive Officer of Porsche AG, paid tribute to Ferdinand Alexander Porsche’s services to the sports car manufacturer: “We mourn the death of our partner, Ferdinand Alexander Porsche. As the creator of the Porsche 911, he established a design culture in our company that has shaped our sports cars to this very day. His philosophy of good design is a legacy to us that we will honour for all time.”

An official memorial service will be held in Stuttgart at a later date.