We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paul Bruno a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Paul, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have worked on is my 26-year journey to tell the story of the creation of the Jeep. I was looking for stories in 1999 to write screenplays about and when I heard that the first Jeep was created in 1940 in the considered impossible timeframe of 49 days by a bankrupt small car company no one has ever heard of, the American Bantam Car Company of Butler, PA, I felt that would make a great movie. 26 years later, numerous screenplay drafts and 3 books written I have, created the most accurate recounting of the development of the Jeep in 1940 – 1941 to date.

Paul, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Paul R. Bruno is recognized as one of the most knowledgeable living experts on the earliest history of the origins, design, implementation and worldwide delivery of the iconic Jeep vehicle and has spent twenty-five years researching, writing and studying early Jeep history.

He has spent countless hours and treasure to tell this story to the world, first for the big screen and now three times in book form. After visiting key sites in the story, and years of research, including at the United States National Archives, he combined his knowledge of project management and history into the 2014 book Project Management in History: The First Jeep.

After additional research he completed The Original Jeeps in 2020, updated in 2024 which tells the complete story of early Jeep history through January 1942. The Original Jeeps in Pictures, published in 2022, tells the story of early Jeep history in images.

Paul has more than 35 years’ experience in the fields of project management and information technology. He holds bachelor’s degrees in management and computer software, as well as master’s degrees in business administration and history.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My late wife and I first began the journey to tell the story of the creation of the Jeep in 1999 hoping to have a movie made about the story. After 12 years of fruitless effort, we decided to tell the story in book form which meant an incredible amount of additional research would be needed.

My wife passed away in 2012 at the beginning of the book journey. However, I chose to persevere on our dream and continued the journey by going to the National Archives in 2013, 2014 and 2016 to find the material I would need to write the books.

I then spent 12 years (2013 – 2025) writing three books on early Jeep history to accurately tell the story of the creation and development of the Jeep for the first time in the Jeep’s long and storied history. Without resilience to persevere through decades of tragedies, setbacks and triumphs the books would not have been written,

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

The goal of my creative journey was to tell the story of the creation and development of the Jeep more accurately than anyone in its 85-year history. I also desired to dispel many of the myths surrounding the origins of the Jeep. I believe I succeeded in this goal when one Amazon reviewer commented, “no better account of the creation of the Jeep has been written!”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.originaljeeps.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063403642551#