William Gorham (engineer)

William Gorham
Born	William Reagan Gorham (1888-01-04)4 January 1888 San Francisco, California, United States
Died	24 October 1949(1949-10-24) (aged 61) Tokyo, Japan
Nationality	American (until 1941), Japanese (1941–1949)
Occupation(s)	Engineer, businessman, consultant
Known for	Contributing to founding of Nissan, engineering and management consultant

William Reagan Gorham (合波武 克人, Gōhamu Katsundo, 4 January 1888 – 24 October 1949) was an American-born Japanese automobile engineer who emigrated to Japan. Gorham would make substantial contributions to the technology and capability of Japan's fledgling automobile industry, and worked with a number of companies that would eventually be merged into the Nissan Motor Company by Yoshisuke Aikawa, who would become a close friend and business partner to Gorham.

In David Halberstam's 1986 book The Reckoning, Halberstam states: "In terms of technology, Gorham was the founder of the Nissan Motor Company" and that "In 1983, sixty-five years after [Gorham's] arrival... young Nissan engineers who had never met him spoke of him as a god and could describe in detail his years at the company and his many inventions."^[1]