Carl G. Fisher

Carl Graham Fisher (1874 to 1939) was an American entrepreneur whose business spanned the automotive industry, highway construction and real estate. Born in Greensburg, Indiana, he left school at twelve, ran a bicycle shop with his brothers and moved into bicycle and automobile racing. In 1904 he bought an interest in the patent for acetylene automobile headlights and built Prest-O-Lite into the main supplier of headlamps in the United States, selling it to Union Carbide in 1913. His Indianapolis dealership is considered likely the first car dealership in the country, and he was a principal of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, whose paved surface earned it the nickname the Brickyard. In 1912 he conceived and helped develop the Lincoln Highway, the first road for the automobile across the United States, and in 1914 began the north to south Dixie Highway. He later developed Miami Beach and began the Montauk project, but his fortune was lost after the 1926 hurricane and the Great Depression. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1971.