The Ford Bronco speaks a language of ancient adamance penned into its panels by McKinley Thompson Jr. and handed down to the present. In 1956, McKinley Thompson Jr. became the first African American designer hired at Ford Motor Company. It was around the time a new challenge sprang up – creating Ford’s first SUV, the Bronco.
Jeep had created the appetite for 4WD off-road capability, and the International Harvester Scout, which is bracing up for a 2028 electrified rebirth, had whetted the appetite. Ford saw how people craved all-purpose 4x4s and wanted to make a slice of the cake.
All eyes turned to the ingenious McKinley to sketch something generational, and he outlined what would outlive him and set the pace for many other SUVs today. According to Ford “One of his (McKinley Thompson Jr) designs, titled “Package Proposal #5 for Bronco,” rendered July 24, 1963, influenced the design language that would become iconic attributes of the first-generation Bronco”.
But it was not an easy feat, especially at that time. It was an attempt to catch up with the market with a new product that Ford didn’t have in the works while being seriously concerned about affordability.
“I believe the hardest thing for a person like McKinley to do was working within the constraints given him to make a beautiful product. Engineering dictates size and functionality, then manufacturing limits how it can be stamped and assembled, and finance says you have to build it for a low price,” explained Ford Bronco interior designer Christopher Young.
McKinley’s design became the blueprint for the original 1966 Bronco, which would etch into the sands of time as Ford’s first SUV. Boxy look, short front and rear overhangs, high ground clearance, etc, were some of the key design elements in the original Bronco. Today, many cues from McKinley’s creative juice have trickled down to the new Broncos and many other offroaders.
Young explained that “McKinley was a man who followed his dreams and wound up making history. He not only broke through the color barrier in the world of automotive design, he helped create some of the most iconic consumer products ever – from the Ford Mustang, Thunderbird and Bronco – designs that are not only timeless but have been studied by generations of designers.”
McKinley left us on March 5, 2006, but his Broncos are still with us. He spoke a design language that echoed through generations—loud enough to stay fresh and futuristic, loud enough to be celebrated this Black History Month.
Gabriel Olakunori
Gabriel likes to argue (blindly) that SUVs are a part of nature, but he seems to have a point whenever you walk in the snow, through the bone-dry desert, splendid park-like boulevard, plains, and rocky roads. He has over five years of experience writing across a broad spectrum of topics, with quite a number in the automotive industry. If he is not at the desk w̶r̶i̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ having fun, he is at the wheel d̶r̶i̶v̶i̶n̶g̶ having fun. Both activities take him to the same destination: Utopia. He loves SUVs simply because they are all-inclusive, but he cannot turn down an offer to drive or write about any vehicle.
