Members of his family opened a restaurant, Yocco's Hot Dogs, which has since grown to include five popular store locations in Allentown and its suburbs.

However, he denied the basis for his christened name in his autobiography, calling it romantic but untrue; his father, Iacocca wrote, travelled to Lido long before his marriage with the brother of his future wife.

After graduating from Lehigh, he won the Wallace Memorial Fellowship and attended Princeton University, where he earned a master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1946.

Iacocca also convinced company boss Henry Ford II to return to racing, claiming several wins at the Indianapolis 500, NASCAR, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

[10] In 1977, there were allegations that the Pinto's structural design allowed its fuel-tank filler neck to break off and the fuel tank to be punctured in a rear-end collision, resulting in deadly fires.

[11] This was partially due to recalls of its Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare, both of which, Iacocca later said, were among the causes for Chrysler's woes and customer dissatisfaction.

Also from Ford, Iacocca brought to Chrysler the "Mini-Max" project, which, in 1983, bore fruit in the highly successful Dodge Caravan and Plymouth Voyager.

Bearing a strong resemblance to the Volkswagen Rabbit, the front-wheel-drive Omni and Horizon became instant hits, selling over 300,000 units each in their debut year, showing what was to come for Chrysler.

Realizing that the company would go out of business if it did not receive a large infusion of cash, Chrysler approached the United States Congress in 1979 and requested a loan guarantee.

[15] Iacocca was able to obtain the guarantee, but Chrysler was required to reduce costs and abandon some longstanding projects, such as the turbine engine, which had been ready for consumer production in 1979 after nearly 20 years of development.

Similar to the later minivan, these compact automobiles were based on design proposals that Ford had rejected during Iacocca's (and Sperlich's) tenure.

[16] Because of the K-cars and minivans, along with the reforms Iacocca implemented, the company turned around quickly and was able to repay the government-backed loans seven years earlier than expected.

Throughout the 1980s, Iacocca, with the help of his longtime friend and advertisement executive, Leo-Arthur Kelmenson, appeared in a series of commercials developed by Kenyon & Eckhardt for the company's vehicles, employing the ad campaign, "The pride is back," to denote the turnaround of the corporation.

Put their passion and ideas to work.Because of the Chrysler bankruptcy, Iacocca lost part of his pension from a supplemental executive retirement plan, and a guaranteed company car during his lifetime.

[30] In 1995, he sold his interests in several Indian gaming projects to Full House Resorts, a casino operator led by his friend Allen Paulson, becoming a major shareholder and later a member of the board of directors.

[33] In 1998, he stepped up to serve as acting chairman of the troubled company, and led it through a merger with Family Restaurants (owner of Chi-Chi's and El Torito).

In 2004, Iacocca launched Join Lee Now,[39] a national grassroots campaign, to bring Faustman's research to human clinical trials in 2006.

These structures currently house the College of Education, the biology and chemical engineering departments, and The Iacocca Institute, which is focused on global competitiveness.

[44][45] His funeral mass was held on July 10, 2019, at St. Hugo of the Hills Roman Catholic Church and he was buried at White Chapel Memorial Cemetery in Troy, Michigan.

[46][47] In his 2007 book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?, Iacocca described how he considered running for president in 1988 and was in the planning stages of a campaign with the slogan "I Like I", before ultimately being talked out of it by his friend Tip O'Neill.

[48] In the 2006 Michigan gubernatorial election, Iacocca appeared in televised political ads endorsing Republican candidate Dick DeVos,[49] who lost.

He introduced topics such as health care costs, and the United States' lag in developing alternative energy sources and hybrid vehicles.

It provides an interactive means for users to rate presidential candidates by the qualities Iacocca believes they should possess: curiosity, creativity, communication, character, courage, conviction, charisma, competence and common sense.

The high amount of publicity that Iacocca received during his turnaround of Chrysler made him a celebrity and gave him a lasting impact in popular culture.

[51] while concurrently it was common to see depictions of elderly, bespectacled businessmen with charismatic, salesman-like personas, such as in an ad campaign by the Rainier Brewing Company.

[53] Fictional businessmen and middle managers, such as Michael Scott on The Office, have been shown reading Iacocca's books and attempting to emulate his methods.

In a manner similar to Ronald Reagan, period pieces produced in subsequent decades have used images of Iacocca and the Chrysler K-car to invoke the 1980s.

[54] In Ordinary People, a song from Neil Young released in Chrome Dreams II and Bluenote Café, Lee Iacocca is quoted in the lyrics as a notable representative of the capitalistic world.

Tom Paxton wrote a song about the bailouts called "I Am Changing My Name To Chrysler," which mentions Iacocca prominently in the chorus.