Sometimes people have extremely appropriate names. One such person would, undoubtedly, be Art Ross. OK, so his first name was actually Arthur, but in its shortened version, under which he went for most of his years, it sums up what he did for a living – creating wonderful pictures. He was one of those car artists for whom the absolute wonder of a fine automobile was simply a fact, not a matter of opinion. Being the son of a Ukrainian Jewish couple who fled to the USA, and landed in New York, the former Arthur Rosenman had an instant liking for the new country.

Although born in New York, it was in Chicago that Art Ross made his life, with his family moving there when he was fourteen years of age. Although his school grades were uniformly bad, he was kept on in school as a result of his immense creative talent. Although he adored the classic cars of the Duesenberg company, he had to turn down a job with them as he was convinced (correctly, it turned out) that the Great Depression would end their operation. He moved out to Detroit instead, to work for General Motors where he became creative designer.

His name has not gone down in history, and he died at the age of 68 in 1981, but the next time you see a tail fin on a car, just think that Art Ross came up with that very idea for the 1948 Cadillac. His invention lives on today.