Roy Brown Jr. dies at age 96 in Ann Arbor Michigan on February 24. 

Brown Jr., the proud designer of the Ford Edsel, died of pneumonia and Parkinson's disease, according to his wife, Jeanne Brown.

The Ford Edsel was a chrome-encrusted, big-grilled car that is considered one of the biggest flops and failures in the history of automobiles.

Roy Brown's creation debuted more than fifty years ago, and almost immediately it was removed from dealerships.

Brown's car even coined a linguistic term: 'Edsel' is synonymous with 'failure'.

Despite it's lack of widespread success, Brown's Edsel generates a certain amount of respect and nostalgia among American motor enthusiasts.

Mr. Brown designed the Edsel, a monster of a car, for people who didn't drive, but 'cruised' with an entourage of at least 5 friends.

The car was to be less expensive than a Mercury but still very visually distinctive, according to Philly.com.

Its most noticeable quality was its vertical grille, which drew comparisons to an Oldsmobile, toilet seat, and other crude images.

Mr. Brown once told the Sun Sentinel what he thought about the Edsel's nicknames, "There are people that have toilet-seat minds."

Initial reviews of the car were enthusiastic, but because the car was essentially a mix of pre-existing models with no real updates, it never really caught on with the public.

The new parts of the car were also hard for workers to put together, resulting in quality problems, according to Inquisitr.

The Ford Motor Company lost more than $300,000 a day while they were producing the Edsel.

Roy Brown Jr. said that he "cried in my beer for two days" after the failure, but then quickly got back to work. He never criticized his design, but blamed the failure on 'Bad Timing".

Roy Brown Jr. always was proud of the Edsel, and reportedly drove one almost until his death. He stated in 1985, "I'm proud of the car. There is not a bad line on the car.

Brown is survived by his wife, Jeanne Brown, four children, a sister, five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and two great great grandchildren.