Delmar
(Barney) Roos, was born in New York City October 11, 1888 and died
February 13, 1960. He was neck-named Barney during his collage days
after his idol Barney Oldfield, while earning degrees in both
mechanical and electrical engineering at Cornell University.
His
early job was that of press photographer and he later worked in the
General Electric Company's, electrical laboratory for Dr. Sanford
Moss. He began his automotive work in 1912 with Locomobile, then
moved to Pierce-Arrow in 1919, and then back to Locomobile in 1922,
where he was instrumental in the design of a new straight-eight that
would replace the aging T-head straight-six. Not getting along with
Billy Durant, who had acquired Locomobile (Durant's third attempt to
create another automotive conglomerate), Roos moved on to Marmon.
While in Indy, he replaced the Marmon Six with a small design
straight-eight, similar to the Locomobile design. But, even before
this engine reached market, he was off again to Studebaker.
He
was chief engineer at Studebaker from 1926 to 1936 where he earned
the reputation of standing up for both himself and his staff against
against the likes of Erskine himself.
In
1936, after a personal crisis, Paul Hoffman sent Roos to England with
the Rootes Group, which distributed Studebaker products in the U.K. It was during this time he developed an interest in smaller cars,
which explains why Canaday would offer him the chief engineering job
at Willys-Overland. It was at Willys that he was pivotal in the
design of the original Jeep and the F-head Go-Devel engine. Roos
left Willys after Kaiser acquired Willys in 1953, but continued to
consult for them until his retirement in 1958. He passed away
suddenly in 1960.
Most
of the information used in creating this article came from a Hemmings
Classic Car, article written by Jim Donnelly
and from Wikipedia.