John Chun


John M. Chun was a Korean-born American car designer. Chun designed the Shelby Mustang GT350 and GT500 models, as well as the Shelby AC Cobra, released between 1967 and 1969. Chun also re-designed the Cobra logo still used by the Shelby line today. He re-designed the logo to include a more realistic, coiled cobra. Chun's design replaced the previous logo, designed by Peter Brock, which featured a frontal angled cobra.
He later worked as a consultant for Hyundai during the launch of its first car lines. He moved to Minnesota in the early 1970s, where he oversaw the design and creation of a new line of toy cars for Tonka Toys.
Born in present-day North Korea to an engineer, Chun moved to South Korea in 1953 as active fighting ended during the Korean War. He immigrated to the United States in 1957, after a friend had already moved to the U.S., settling in Sacramento, California. He held an engineering degree from a university in Korea, but the degree was not useful in the American job market and Chun spoke little English at the time. Chun enrolled at Sacramento Junior College, where a professor insisted that he apply to the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He worked full-time as a mechanic while studying at ACCD. Chun received his bachelor's degree in industrial design, with a specialty in transportation design, after seven years, while working as a mechanic to pay for his class.
After leaving Tonka Toys, he owned and operated the Chun Mee Restaurant in Delano, Minnesota, with his family from 1986 until his death in 2013.
John Chun died on July 6, 2013, at the age of 84. He was survived by his wife, Helen Chun, and children Marsha and Kevin.