8 | LEHIGH ALUMNI BULLETIN | FROM THE NEST Lee Iacocca ’45 gave hundreds of speeches full of anecdotes about his time presiding over and turning around the beleaguered Chrysler Corporation. The renowned businessman had a way with words. In 1980, he convinced President Jimmy Carter and Congress to provide a $1.5 billion loan to save Chrysler. Iacocca felt so strongly about Chrysler’s vehicles, he became known for his television commercials featuring the bold catchphrase, “If you can find a better car, buy it.” And in 1982, when he was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as leader of the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation, Iacocca’s powerful speeches encouraged people across the United States to donate nearly $500 million for the restoration of the two historic sites. More than 500 of Iacocca’s speeches are now available and easily searchable online, thanks to a digitization effort by Lehigh University Libraries Special Collections. The speeches, gifted to Lehigh in 2012, cover a period from 1978-2011. During that time, Iacocca, who became known as a symbol of American ingenuity and resilience thanks to his legendary career presiding over operations for two of the Big Three automakers, was invited to speak at Apple Computer, the 1984 Rose Bowl, the National Football League (NFL) Alumni Association and Maserati, among other well-known businesses and events. Throughout his stellar career, Iacocca was proud to remain loyal to Lehigh, delivering Lehigh’s commencement speech in 1983, returning in 1988 to dedicate the Iacocca Institute and again in 2011 to launch the Lee Iacocca International Internship Challenge. “The Iacocca speeches have always been a priority for us, particularly getting them in the hands of our faculty and students,” said Lois Black, curator of Special Collections. But digitizing the speeches involved a lot of time and energy. “Part of it is just a challenge of scale. … It’s a complex project,” said Alex Japha, a digital archivist for Special Collections. Librarians had to take an inventory of the 515 black binders SPECIAL COLLECTIONS | ALUMNI ʼ45 Lee Iacocca’s Iconic Speeches Digitized Lehigh Libraries Special Collections has made more than 500 of Iacocca’s speeches searchable and available online. “HE WAS AN ALUMNUS, A LEADER, A LABOR LEADER, INVOLVED WITH LIFE-CHANGING EVENTS IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.” —Special Collections Librarian Ilhan Citak ASSOCIATED PRESS
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