Biography John Hinckley
Biography
JOHN HINCKLEY - NCRS #29964
John P. Hinckley, age 80, of Washington Township, passed away on Monday, June 21, 2021, at the Shelby Manor in Shelby Twp. John was born on February 27, 1941, the son of John and Shirley (Bloodheart) Hinckley. John married Linda (Coker) on January 4, 1995, in beautiful Maui. John is survived by his daughter Nancy (Brian) Lance of Illinois., also two grandchildren Joe (Raven) Lance of Omaha, and Sarah Lance of Illinois. They were also blessed with two great-grandchildren.
After earning a BSME from Michigan State University and spending three years as an Officer in Army Aviation, John Hinckley started with Chevrolet at the Willow Run Assembly Plant as a Production Foreman in 1964, building the Chevy II and Corvair, and moved on in 1966 to the Chevrolet Pilot Line in Flint as Senior Process Engineer-Passenger Cars. During 1966-1968, he was assigned to the Corvette Group at Chevrolet Engineering in Warren as Manufacturing Liaison Engineer, responsible for future Corvette assembly processing, and spent a great deal of time at all Chevrolet assembly plants, including build-out of the ’67 and lunch of the ’68 at St. Louis-Corvette.
Later assignments during 1969-1975 included planning and execution of the conversion of the Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant from Caprice/Firebird production to the Vega, managing the Vega launch, General Foreman and later Superintendent of Chassis and Final Assembly Production at Lordstown, and the lunch of the Cosworth-Vega. This was followed by ten years (from 1975-1985) at GM Assembly Division Production Engineering Project Manager for the 1980 “X” Car program and as Engineer-in-Charge of Advance production Planning and Tooling for all new GM Project Center programs.
John was recruited out of GM by Chrysler in 1985 as Manufacturing Manager, Project Liberty, then Chief Engineer-Advance Process Development, then Director of Advance Manufacturing Engineering for Large and Small Car Platforms. He spent the last five years of his 37-year career as Plant Manager of the Viper/Prowler Assembly Plant in Detroit before retiring in March 2001. He spent his entire career focused on production engineering, assembly plant operations, processed, tooling and facilities.
John is a former Chairman of the NCRS (National Corvette Restorers Society) Michigan Chapter (2001-2006), is a veteran Bloomington Gold Certification Judge and Corvette Restoration Workshop Instructor. He was a Core Member of the Camaro Research Group (www.camaros.org), and is a member of the Solid Axle Corvette Club, the Eastern Michigan Camaro Club, and the Society of Automotive Engineers. John wrote numerous technical articles for internal GM and Chrysler publications, many SAE presentations, OEM automotive trade journal articles, many technical articles published in the NCRS “Corvette Restorer” magazine, and was named Vintage Technical Editor of the nationally-renowned “Corvette Enthusiast” magazine in 2003, which has published over 110 of his Corvette technical articles and columns.
John and Linda built their retirement home seven years ago, including his 2500 sq. ft. attached “dream garage” for his award-winning 1967 Corvette and 1969 Camaro Z/28. John has owned seven Ferraris since 1972, and has built numerous race cars and street rods, has done six complete body-off Corvette restorations, built three 427 Cobra replicas, and a tube-frame Corvette Grand Sport replica.
John was inducted in 2009 as a member of the National Corvette Museum Hall of Fame. Link here.
Join Year: 1997
Deceased Date: 06-21-2021
Previous Chapter Affiliations:
Michigan Chapter
Achieved Flight Judging Car Award(s):
1957 Corvette: Flight Judging Award (Top Flight) at WARREN MI (Chapter) in 1999
1967 Corvette: Flight Judging Award (Second Flight) at Rochester Hills, MI (Chapter) in 2003
1967 Corvette: Flight Judging Award (Top Flight) at W. Bloomfield MI (Chapter) in 2004
Achieved Judging Award(s):
Level 200 Master Judge
Flight Judging Points: 249