Alfred Marcel Ney was born January 31, 1902 in St. Petersburg, Russia, the son of French teacher Pierre Ney and his wife, Marie-Lise. The family returned to Toulon, France, in 1903. Alfred attended the Lycee Colbert in Toulon and the Ecole Centrale des Artes et Manufactures in Paris, earning his engineering degree in 1922 – the same year he arrived in the Unites States to observe the auto industry.

He worked for a short while with the Packard Motor Car Company as part of a crew that installed a Packard X-24 engine into Lt. Alford Williams hydroplane for the Schneider Cup competition; however, the plane was not completed in time for the race.

He married Anna Gerber on September 2, 1926 in Greenwich, Connecticut. Anna was born on June 14, 1906 in Kiev, Russia, and arrived in the United States in August 1921.

During the 1930s, Alfred worked for Vincent Bendix in designing his little known concept car, the Bendix SWC - the “Steel Wheel Car” which is on display at the National Studebaker Museum in South Bend, Indiana. Ney left Bendix in 1937 and joined the newly formed Pratt and Whitney Division of United Aircraft as an automotive engineer. Alfred worked briefly at a number of different aerospace firms before settling at Convair in 1946. He worked on engines in the Propulsion Department until he retired in 1965. Alfred passed away on August 26, 1991 at the age of 89 years old, and was predeceased by Anna who passed on August 3, 1989 at the age of 83.