Henry Ford II

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Henry Ford II bigraphy, stories - American automotive industry executive; longtime president, chairman, and CEO of the Ford Motor Company; member of the Henry Ford dynasty

Henry Ford II : biography

1917 – 1987

Henry Ford II (September 4, 1917 – September 29, 1987), sometimes known as "HF2" or "t’Hank the Deuce", was the oldest son of Edsel Ford and oldest grandson of Henry Ford. He was president of the Ford Motor Company from 1945 to 1960, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) from 1960 to 1979, and chairman for several months thereafter. Notably, under the visionary leadership of Henry Ford II, Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation in 1956. From 1943 to 1950, he also served as president of the Ford Foundation.

Career

When his father Edsel, the president of Ford, died of cancer in May 1943 (during World War II), Henry Ford II was serving in the navy, and was thus unable to take over the presidency of the family-owned business. The elderly and ailing Henry Ford, company founder, decided to assume the presidency. By this point in his life, he was mentally inconsistent, suspicious, and generally no longer fit for such a job; most of the directors did not want to see him as president. But for the previous 20 years, although he had long been without any official executive title, he had always had de facto control over the company; the board and the management had never seriously defied him, and this moment was not different. The directors elected him,. and he served until the end of the war. During this period the company began to decline, losing over $10 million a month. The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt had been considering a government takeover of the company in order to ensure continued war production, but the idea never progressed to execution.

Henry Ford II left the Navy in July 1943 and joined the company’s management a few weeks later. After 2 years, he took over the presidency of the business on September 21, 1945. Since it had been assumed that Edsel Ford would continue in his capacity as president of the company for much longer than turned out to be the case, Henry Ford II had received little grooming for the position, and he took over the company during a chaotic period; its European factories had suffered a great deal of damage during the war, and domestic sales were also in decline.

Henry Ford II immediately adopted an aggressive management style. One of his first acts as company president was to fire Harry Bennett, head of the Ford Service Department, who had originally been hired by Henry Ford to stifle attempts at unionization. Next, acknowledging his inexperience, he hired several seasoned executives to support him. He hired former General Motors executives Ernest Breech and Lewis Crusoe away from the Bendix Corporation. Breech was to serve in the coming years as HF2’s business mentor, and the Breech–Crusoe team would form the core of Ford’s business expertise, offering much-needed experience.

Additionally, HF2 hired ten young up-and-comers, known as the "Whiz Kids". These ten, gleaned from an Army Air Forces statistical team, HF2 envisioned as giving the company the ability to innovate and stay current. Two of them, Arjay Miller and Robert McNamara, went on to serve as presidents of Ford themselves. A third member, J. Edward Lundy, served in key financial roles for several decades and helped to establish Ford Finance’s reputation as one of the best Finance organizations in the world. As a team, the "whiz kids" are probably best remembered as the design team for the 1949 Ford, which they took from concept to production in nineteen months, and which re-established Ford as a formidable automotive company. It was reported that 100,000 orders for this car were taken the day it was introduced to the market.

Henry Ford II was president of Ford Motor Company from 1945 to 1960. The company became a publicly traded corporation under his leadership in 1956. When he resigned the presidency, he became CEO of the company. During his term as CEO of Ford, he resided in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. From 1959, Henry Ford II established a family friendship with The Honorable Jaja Wachuku of Nigeria. On July 13, 1960 he was additionally elected Chairman; he resigned as CEO on October 1, 1979, and as Chairman in 1980. His nephew, William Clay Ford, Jr. would later assume these positions after 20 years of non-Ford family management of the company. During the interim, the family interests were represented on the board by Henry’s younger brother William Clay Ford, Sr., as well as his son Edsel Ford II and his nephew William Clay Ford, Jr.

HF2’s management style caused the company’s fortunes to fluctuate in more ways than one. For example, he allowed the offering of public stock in 1956, which raised 650 million USD for the company, but the "experimental car" program instituted during his tenure, the Edsel, lost the company almost half that. Likewise, HF2 hired the creative Lee Iacocca, who was fundamental to the success of the Ford Mustang, in 1964, but fired Iacocca due to personal disputes in 1978 (about the break in their relationship, HF2 was famously quoted as saying, "Sometimes you just don’t like somebody"). He formally retired from all positions at Ford Motor Company on October 1, 1982, upon reaching the company’s mandatory retirement age of 65, but remained the ultimate source of authority at Ford until his death in 1987.

Awards and achievements

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon Johnson in 1969.

Ford was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1996.

Personal life

Henry Ford II was married three times:

  • Anne McDonnell (1920—1996), a daughter of James F. McDonnell. They married in 1940 and divorced in 1964 (she married Deane F. Johnson in 1968). The Fords had three children: Charlotte, Anne, and Edsel Ford II
  • Maria Cristina Vettore (born 1926), formerly wife of Lt. William Austin, a British naval officer; married 1965, divorced 1980
  • Kathleen DuRoss (born 1949), widow of David DuRoss (died 1968); she and Ford were married in Carson City, Nevada, 1980. By this marriage Ford had two stepdaughters, Deborah Guibord and Kimberly DuRoss

He died of pneumonia in Detroit at Henry Ford Hospital on September 29, 1987, at the age of 70.

Early life

Henry Ford II was born in Detroit, Michigan to Eleanor Clay Ford and Edsel Ford on September 4, 1917. He and his brothers, Benson and William, grew up amid affluence. He attended The Hotchkiss School.

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