For many years, John Chun was known simply as the guy who ran the Chinese food restaurant in his small Minnesota town. Outside of his wife, no one ever really knew that Chun was a great designer who had applied his talents to everything from Tonka trucks, to vacuum cleaners, and most importantly to cars. He had worked for Chrysler in the 1970s, but his most famed and coolest work was done in the late 1960s when he was hired as a designer at Shelby and worked on the 1968/1969 GT350 and GT500 Mustangs, other projects, and ultimately he worked on a redesign of the company logo that is still in use today.

Born in North Korea, he escaped not once but twice from the country after the Korean peninsula was split in half. Chun moved to America and took classes to learn the English language. He then went to work as a mechanic for International Harvester and during that time he was going to college full time as well. He did this for a period of something like seven years. At a job fair he was hired to work at Shelby with little in the way of explanation. He took the job and went to work where he found himself working on designs and drawings from the GT350 and GT500 Mustangs that were to be the last cars produced by Shelby for Ford before they took the production in house. Chun was also largely responsible for the redesign of the Shelby logo to that of a coiled snake readying itself to strike. He thought that the original logo wasn’t quite mean enough and the sight of the snake coiled and upright was far more menacing than the original. We think that he was right.

After Ford brought Shelby production in-house, Chun was free to pursue the next steps in his career and the first one came in the form of an offer from Chrysler. He went to work there and had a hand in Chrysler and Challenger design which makes sense coming off the work with the pony/muscle car Shelby market. He spent time working for Tonka toys as well because they wanted a real automotive designer on staff and not just toy designers. He applied his skills to everyday things as well, getting a patent on a vacuum cleaner he designed.

In several interviews he granted over the years, Chun was always proudest of his ability to consider the manner in which things needs to be produced and installed in his designs. His time as a mechanic was probably an invaluable part of that education. Anyone who has turned a wrench has screamed, “What were these guys thinking?!” out in rage more than a couple of times over the years. Chun said that he took great car into making sure that question was not directed by him.

Chun was 84 years old. Here’s a cool photo of he and his wife at their restaurant, Chun Mee, which is located in Delano, Minnesota.