Suzuki Motor former boss Osamu Suzuki, who turned the minicar maker into a global player, dies at 94

TOKYO (AP) — Osamu Suzuki, the charismatic former boss of Suzuki Motor Corp. who helped turn the Japanese mini-vehicle maker into a globally competitive company, has died, the company said Friday. He was 94.

Suzuki was known for his candid remarks and friendliness, calling himself an “old guy from a small to mid-size company.” He became CEO of Suzuki in 1978 and was leading the company when it became the first Japanese automaker to start local production in India, where its cars proved hugely popular.

Born on Jan. 30, 1930 as Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki worked in banking after graduating from Tokyo's Chuo University School of Law. He joined Suzuki Motor, which is based in the central Japanese city of Hamamatsu, in 1958 when he married a daughter of the company's then-president Shunzo Suzuki, who belonged to the company’s founding family. As is sometimes the custom in such situations, Matsuda adopted his wife’s maiden name.

In 1979, a year after he became Suzuki Motor's fourth company president, he launched an affordable minicar, which became a big hit and was promoted to world markets.

Under Suzuki's leadership, the company's sales grew more than tenfold to 3 trillion yen ($19 billion) in the 2000s. .

Suzuki also led business tie-ups with other global leaders such as General Motors and Volkswagen AG in the 2000s. Amid intensifying competition and industrial transformation, Suzuki also formed a capital alliance with Toyota Motor Corp. in 2019 to co-develop self-driving vehicles.

While other Japanese automakers have expanded in the U.S. and Chinese markets, offering a wide range of vehicles, Suzuki has stuck with mini and compact cars, mostly in South and Southeast Asia.

Suzuki stressed the importance of understanding the grassroots level.

“Making good quality and low-price products is the basis of manufacturing,” Suzuki once told an interview with the broadcaster NHK television. “We cannot lower costs while sitting in the offices of president or chairperson, so I have to be in a factory to understand the work and get ideas.”

Suzuki stepped down as president at age 85 in 2015, handing the post to his son, Toshihiro Suzuki. He served as an advisor to the company after resigning as chairman in 2021.

The company said Suzuki died Wednesday of malignant lymphoma.

FILE - Chairman and CEO of the Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corp., Osamu Suzuki, left, and President and CEO of Fiat Auto S.p.A. of Italy, Giancarlo Boschetti, share a laugh before they signed an agreement on jointly developing and producing a new sport utility vehicle in a hotel in Budapest, Hungary, April 10, 2003. (Tamas Kovacs/MTI via AP, File)

FILE - Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Osamu Suzuki, center, receives a traditional welcome during his visit to the proposed site for Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's (MSIL) manufacturing facility at Hansalpur near Mehsana, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Ahmadabad, India, Aug. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/AJit Solanki, File)

FILE - General Motors Chairman John F. Smith, left, and Osamu Suzuki, president and CEO of Suzuki Motor Corp., smile after announcing the two automakers' agreement to increase coordination of their global manufacturing operations in Tokyo, Sept. 16, 1998. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara, File)

FILE - Osamu Suzuki, head of the Suzuki Motor Corporation, left, sits in the first Suzuki Ignis made in Hungary next to Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy just after the production start of the new Suzuki model in Esztergom near Budapest, Hungary, April 10, 2003. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, File)

FILE - Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, left, speaks with Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman Osamu Suzuki during a news conference in Tokyo, Oct. 12, 2016. (Shigeyuki Inakuma/Kyodo News via AP, File)

FILE - Suzuki Motor Corp. President and Chairman Osama Suzuki, right, and Vice President Osamu Honda pose with a Suzuki X-Lander hybrid concept car on display at a media preview for the Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Nov. 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)

FILE - Then India's Gujarat State Chief Minister Nerendra Modi, left, poses with Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Osamu Suzuki for a photo during a reception of the "Invest Gujarat" seminar in Hamamatsu, southwest of Tokyo, July 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

FILE - Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Sept. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

Glenn Hall, a Hockey Hall of Famer whose ironman streak of 502 starts as a goaltender remains an NHL record, has died. He was 94.

Nicknamed “Mr. Goalie,” Hall worked to stop pucks at a time when players at his position were bare-faced, before masks of any kind became commonplace. He did it as well as just about anyone of his generation, which stretched from the days of the Original Six into the expansion era.

A spokesperson for the Chicago Blackhawks confirmed the team received word of Hall’s death from his family. A league historian in touch with Hall’s son, Pat, said Hall died at a hospital in Stony Plain, Alberta, on Wednesday.

A pioneer of the butterfly style of goaltending of dropping to his knees, Hall backstopped Chicago to the Stanley Cup in 1961. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player of the playoffs in 1968 with St. Louis when the Blues reached the final before losing to Montreal. He was the second of just six Conn Smythe winners from a team that did not hoist the Cup.

His run of more than 500 games in net is one of the most untouchable records in sports, given how the position has changed in the decades since. Second in history is Alec Connell with 257 from 1924-30.

“Glenn was sturdy, dependable and a spectacular talent in net,” Commissioner Gary Bettman said. “That record, set from 1955-56 to 1962-63, still stands, probably always will, and is almost unfathomable — especially when you consider he did it all without a mask.”

Counting the postseason, Hall started 552 games in a row.

Hall won the Calder Trophy as rookie of the year in 1956 when playing for the Detroit Red Wings. After two seasons, he was sent to the Black Hawks along with legendary forward Ted Lindsay.

Hall earned two of his three Vezina Trophy honors as the league's top goalie with Chicago, in 1963 and '67. The Blues took him in the expansion draft when the NHL doubled from six teams to 12, and he helped them reach the final in each of their first three years of existence, while winning the Vezina again at age 37.

Hall was in net when Boston's Bobby Orr scored in overtime to win the Cup for the Bruins in 1970, a goal that's among the most famous in hockey history because of the flying through the air celebration that followed. He played one more season with St. Louis before retiring in 1971.

“His influence extended far beyond the crease," Blues chairman Tom Stillman said. “From the very beginning, he brought credibility, excellence, and heart to a new team and a new NHL market.”

A native of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Hall was a seven-time first-team NHL All-Star who had 407 wins and 84 shutouts in 906 regular-season games. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975, and his No. 1 was retired by Chicago in 1988.

Hall was chosen as one of the top 100 players in the league's first 100 years.

Blackhawks chairman and CEO Danny Wirtz called Hall an innovator and “one of the greatest and most influential goaltenders in the history of our sport and a cornerstone of our franchise.”

“We are grateful for his extraordinary contributions to hockey and to our club, and we will honor his memory today and always,” Wirtz said.

The Blackhawks paid tribute to Hall and former coach and general manager Bob Pulford with a moment of silence before Wednesday night’s game against St. Louis. Pulford died Monday.

A Hall highlight video was shown on the center-ice videoboard. The lights were turned off for the moment of silence, except for a spotlight on the No. 1 banner for Hall that hangs in the rafters at the United Center.

Fellow Hall of Famer Martin Brodeur, the league's leader in wins with 691 and games played with 1,266, posted a photo of the last time he saw Hall along with a remembrance of him.

“Glenn Hall was a legend, and I was a big fan of his,” Brodeur said on social media. “He set the standard for every goaltender who followed. His toughness and consistency defined what it meant to play.”

AP Sports Writer Jay Cohen in Chicago contributed to this report.

AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl

FILE - Glenn Hall, second from left, stands with fellow former Chicago Blackhawks players Stan Mikita, former general manager Tommy Ivan, Bobby Hull, Bill Wirtz and Tony Esposito during a pre-game ceremony at the Chicago Stadium in Chicago, Ill., April 14, 1994. (AP Photo/Fred Jewell, File)

FILE - St. Louis Blues goalie Glenn Hall, top right, is pinned to his net waiting to make a save on a Montreal Canadians shot as Blues' Noel Picard (4) tries to block the puck while Canadiens' John Ferguson (22) and Ralph Backstorm wait for a rebound in the third period of their NHL hockey Stanley Cup game, May 5, 1968. (AP Photo/Fred Waters, File)