William Clay Ford helped steer automaker into modern era
This is a picture of William Clay Ford, the new Lions Football President on January 24, 1961.
By Alisa Priddle, Bill Laitner,
Lori Higgins and Dave Birkett Detroit Free Press
William Clay Ford talks with his son, Bill Ford on the sidelines of a Lions game against the Houston Texans on Sept. 19, 2004. / Rashaun Rucker/Detroit Free Press
William Clay Ford, owner of the Detroit Lions, celebrated philanthropist and the last surviving grandson of Henry Ford who helped steer the company into a modern design era, died Sunday morning of pneumonia. He was 88.
“My father was a great business leader and humanitarian who dedicated his life to the company and the community,” said Bill Ford Jr., one of Ford’s four children and executive chairman of the automaker and vice chairman of the Lions. “He also was a wonderful family man, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him, yet he will continue to inspire us all.”
As a younger son and grandson, William Clay Ford was not chosen as the company heir with his brother Henry II, instead, taking over the family business. Over his life, Ford struck out more on his own. While he worked as a Ford executive, his legacy is firmly linked to the Lions, for better or worse. He carved niches for himself as a significant philanthropist, a family man and as an ardent Lions fan, who was loyal, extremely loyal, to his employees and his city.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Gov. Rick Snyder praised Ford for his commitment to metro Detroit, the state and philanthropy. Ford executives, directors and recipients of his generosity described a caring man with a genuine interest in their lives and their work.
Already the Lions team president and Ford Motor executive in the early 1960s, Ford bought the Lions for $6 million in the fall of 1963 and ran the organization for the past 50 years. He made waves in the early 1970s when he announced plans to move the Lions to the Pontiac Silverdome. But he helped push the evolving redevelopment of downtown by moving the team back to Detroit in 2002 into a newly built Ford Field.
George Jackson, president and CEO of Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said Ford’s role in bringing the Lions back was a key turning point. “It definitely was a major building block for improving the quality of life for residents and visitors,” Jackson said. “It brings people to town.”
Ford and his new stadium persuaded the NFL to select Detroit as the 2006 Super Bowl host. The week was considered a big success and for some the dawn of a new fascination with the city and its fortunes.
A Super Bowl appearance of its own famously eluded the team, which seemed jinxed at times. But Ford’s passion and commitment were never questioned. Team leaders on Sunday said they would continue to pursue the championship goal in Ford’s memory and honor.
“No owner loved his team more than Mr. Ford loved the Lions,” team President Tom Lewand said in a statement. “Those of us who had the opportunity to work for Mr. Ford knew of his unyielding passion for his family, the Lions and the city of Detroit. His leadership, integrity, kindness, humility and good humor were matched only by his desire to bring a Super Bowl championship to the Lions and to our community. Each of us in the organization will continue to relentlessly pursue that goal in his honor.”
The Lions organization said Sunday that details of “ownership succession” would be discussed at a future time. Forbes listed the team’s value last year at $900 million, 28th out of the 32 NFL teams.
“Like his grandfather, he was passionate about automobiles and the auto industry, the city of Detroit and his family.”
Ford was equally passionate about giving back. He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Henry Ford Museum from 1951-83, after which he was named chairman emeritus. He was an honorary life trustee of the Eisenhower Medical Center and a national trustee for the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of America. He also was an honorary chair of the United Way for Southeastern Michigan and served on the Texas Heart Institute National Advisory Council.
In 1996, Henry Ford Hospital opened the William Clay Ford Center for Athletic Medicine, a leading sports medicine treatment and research institution. In 1997, the outdoor courts of the University of Michigan’s new tennis center also were named in his honor. The Great Hall of the Henry Ford museum — the William Clay Ford Hall of American Innovation — also was named in recognition of his support.
“He was just a great human being,” said Dr. Scott Dulchavsky, Ford’s personal physician for the last 10 years, and CEO of the Henry Ford Innovation Institute and chairman of surgery at the hospital.
Ford, he said, enjoyed telling stories about growing up with his grandfather. “Mr. Ford would often talk about his involvement and side trips with his grandfather and meeting with Thomas Edison and folks such as that as if it was every day for all of us. They were wonderful, amazing museum quality stories that I will always miss,” Dulchavsky said.
“Mr. Ford had a profound impact on Ford Motor Company,” Mulally said Sunday. “While we mourn Mr. Ford’s death, we also are grateful for his many contributions to the company and the auto industry.”
When Ford announced his pending retirement in 2005, son Bill called it “a bittersweet moment for me and everyone who loves the Ford Motor Co. “I speak frequently about the family values that define our company’s culture. But in doing so, I am simply echoing everything my father taught me about the importance of embracing principles, setting high standards of behavior and acting responsibly toward the people with whom we work, the customers we see and the world in which we live.
“My dad helped lead Ford into the modern era and make us who we are,” Bill Ford said at the time as he vowed to continue seeking his counsel. “His institutional knowledge is an incredible asset and his love for the company is unmatched.”
The youngest of Edsel Ford’s four children, Ford was born in 1925. He married Martha Firestone, granddaughter of Harvey Firestone and Idabelle Smith Firestone in 1947, bringing together two great automotive legacies. The couple had four children: Martha, Sheila, Elizabeth and William Clay Ford Jr., better known as Bill.
He spent 57 years of his life working for the automaker, more than half the company’s 110-year history. He was elected to the board of directors on June 4, 1948, after serving with the U.S. Navy Air Corps during World War II.
After graduating from Yale University in 1949 with a bachelor of arts/science in economics, he began working for the family business. He held a number of executive positions leading to his appointment as vice president and general manager of the Continental Division in 1954, where he updated the car his father created and oversaw the launch of the classic Continental Mark II in 1955.
There were only two pictures on the wall in his Ford headquarters office: his father’s Continental and the new Mark II. In 1956, he took over corporate product planning and design, becoming vice president of product design in 1973.
When the design committee was formed in 1957, Ford became its first chairman and he kept that post until he retired from the company in 1989. In 1978, Ford was elected chairman of the executive committee and appointed a member of the office of the chief executive. He was elected vice chairman of the board in 1980 and chairman of the finance committee in 1987. He retired from his post as vice chairman in 1989 and as chairman of the finance committee in 1995.
“For a time that was hard on Bill Ford Sr., who had a genuine love of cars and probably a more natural affinity for the product side than his older brother. He spent much of a lifetime in jobs with titles, but he rarely had power, and on more than one occasion he saw his pet projects dismantled,” Halberstam wrote.
During the infamous showdown in 1978 between Henry II and Lee Iacocca that led to Henry firing the charismatic executive, Halberstam portrayed Bill as offering a sympathetic ear to Iacocca, but he lacked the power to reverse his firing.
But he played an important, if spur-of-the-moment, role in reinforcing the family’s firm control of the enterprise, according to Halberstam.
In 1956 when Henry II was working with Goldman Sachs on the company’s initial public stock offering, the older brother was prepared to sign off on a plan that would keep 30% of the voting power in the family’s hands through a special class of shares.
Just before the decision was made, Bill walked into brother Henry’s office and said, “I don’t know about you, Henry, but I like owning this company. Let’s be a little more on the safe side and make it 40%.”
David Lewis, 87, a retired University of Michigan history professor and author of “A Public Image of Henry Ford,” published in 1976, and now working on a biography of Henry Ford II, interviewed William Clay Ford in May 1990, taping a 2½-hour recording of his lifelong reminiscences.
“He was asked in the early 1950s by Ernest Breech, the company chairman, to study whether to revive the Lincoln Continental. He gathered a little staff and talked the company into going ahead. There were about 10 designs for styling and it’s well known that Bill’s design won out. So the company used his design for several years in the early 1950s for cars that sold for a princely $10,000.”
A few years later, the Continental Division was discontinued as the only Ford division that was unprofitable.
Bill Chapin, 65, of Grosse Pointe, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn and grandson of the founder of Hudson Motor Car Co., which later became American Motors, said Ford’s work on the Continental gave the company newfound prestige.
“Although the Continental Mark II was not a successful product, it certainly brought prestige and prominence to Ford Motor Co. Some people consider it the most beautiful American car, ever. And that was Bill Ford’s project, all the way through. If you look at what Ford Motor is trying to do with Lincoln today ... I think they could take some thoughts from his playbook.”
.
“He did want to be chairman of the company after Henry II retired, but he didn’t want to be CEO. Henry said, you’ve got to be CEO to be chairman, and to do that you’ll have to give up the Detroit Lions,” Lewis said. “He refused to do that. His blood ran Ford blue, of course, but on the other hand, he loved the Lions. So he gave up that ambition to be chairman.”
As Lions owner, Ford was known as a generous man to players and employees but often loyal to a fault.
Ford, who grew up a fan, became the NFL’s second-longest tenured current owner, second only to Grosse Pointe Shores’ Ralph Wilson, who founded the Buffalo Bills in 1959.
Former players swear by Ford’s kindness and save their harshest words for some of the managers he employed. Old coaches appreciate his loyalty that fans came to question. And people across the league insist the NFL — and football in Detroit — wouldn’t be where it is today if not for Ford’s decision to rescue the team from a syndicate of 144 stockholders.
He helped Detroit keep its Thanksgiving game tradition and brought two Super Bowls to the city, though Detroit was only the host and not a participant.
The Lions made just 10 playoff appearances in Ford’s 50 seasons as owner and won only one postseason game, a 38-6 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in 1992.
After Bobby Ross quit midway through the 2000 season because of health problems, Ford hired Matt Millen as general manager, and the Lions endured one of the darkest periods in NFL history for any team, going 31-84.
Millen said Ford was driven to win. “People have the wrong thoughts on him when I read different comments or I hear things,” Millen told the Free Press on Sunday. “People don’t have any idea of what Mr. Ford was or is. ... He was loyal. He was just one of the best people I’ve ever met.”
Lillian Schemansky, 42, of Eastpointe, has worked the last decade as the senior Ford’s personal assistant at Ford’s lakefront Grosse Pointe Shores estate. Schemansky said “he was hilarious, very soft-spoken, and he never put on airs with anyone. I can’t speak on his personal life because I am under a confidentiality contract. But I will deeply, deeply miss him — miss seeing that smile every morning.”
Schemansky said she was upset Sunday when she saw reactions to Ford’s death on the Internet from disgruntled Lions fans. “It’s very upsetting to see people bashing Mr. Ford as a football owner who lost. He gave everything he had to give people a winning team. I know from talking to him — that’s all he wanted, and it wasn’t for selfish gain. He was as much of a fan as you and I are.”
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Martha Firestone Ford; daughters Martha Ford Morse (Peter), Sheila Ford Hamp (Steven), and Elizabeth Ford Kontulis (Charles); son William Clay Ford Jr. (Lisa); 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held privately.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent in the name of William Clay Ford to the Henry Ford Museum at 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn 48124 or to Dr. Scott Dulchavsky’s Innovation Institute at Henry Ford Health System at 2799 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit 48045.
“My father was a great business leader and humanitarian who dedicated his life to the company and the community,” said Bill Ford Jr., one of Ford’s four children and executive chairman of the automaker and vice chairman of the Lions. “He also was a wonderful family man, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him, yet he will continue to inspire us all.”
As a younger son and grandson, William Clay Ford was not chosen as the company heir with his brother Henry II, instead, taking over the family business. Over his life, Ford struck out more on his own. While he worked as a Ford executive, his legacy is firmly linked to the Lions, for better or worse. He carved niches for himself as a significant philanthropist, a family man and as an ardent Lions fan, who was loyal, extremely loyal, to his employees and his city.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Gov. Rick Snyder praised Ford for his commitment to metro Detroit, the state and philanthropy. Ford executives, directors and recipients of his generosity described a caring man with a genuine interest in their lives and their work.
Already the Lions team president and Ford Motor executive in the early 1960s, Ford bought the Lions for $6 million in the fall of 1963 and ran the organization for the past 50 years. He made waves in the early 1970s when he announced plans to move the Lions to the Pontiac Silverdome. But he helped push the evolving redevelopment of downtown by moving the team back to Detroit in 2002 into a newly built Ford Field.
George Jackson, president and CEO of Detroit Economic Growth Corp., said Ford’s role in bringing the Lions back was a key turning point. “It definitely was a major building block for improving the quality of life for residents and visitors,” Jackson said. “It brings people to town.”
Ford and his new stadium persuaded the NFL to select Detroit as the 2006 Super Bowl host. The week was considered a big success and for some the dawn of a new fascination with the city and its fortunes.
A Super Bowl appearance of its own famously eluded the team, which seemed jinxed at times. But Ford’s passion and commitment were never questioned. Team leaders on Sunday said they would continue to pursue the championship goal in Ford’s memory and honor.
“No owner loved his team more than Mr. Ford loved the Lions,” team President Tom Lewand said in a statement. “Those of us who had the opportunity to work for Mr. Ford knew of his unyielding passion for his family, the Lions and the city of Detroit. His leadership, integrity, kindness, humility and good humor were matched only by his desire to bring a Super Bowl championship to the Lions and to our community. Each of us in the organization will continue to relentlessly pursue that goal in his honor.”
The Lions organization said Sunday that details of “ownership succession” would be discussed at a future time. Forbes listed the team’s value last year at $900 million, 28th out of the 32 NFL teams.
“Like his grandfather, he was passionate about automobiles and the auto industry, the city of Detroit and his family.”
Ford was equally passionate about giving back. He was chairman of the board of trustees of the Henry Ford Museum from 1951-83, after which he was named chairman emeritus. He was an honorary life trustee of the Eisenhower Medical Center and a national trustee for the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs of America. He also was an honorary chair of the United Way for Southeastern Michigan and served on the Texas Heart Institute National Advisory Council.
In 1996, Henry Ford Hospital opened the William Clay Ford Center for Athletic Medicine, a leading sports medicine treatment and research institution. In 1997, the outdoor courts of the University of Michigan’s new tennis center also were named in his honor. The Great Hall of the Henry Ford museum — the William Clay Ford Hall of American Innovation — also was named in recognition of his support.
“He was just a great human being,” said Dr. Scott Dulchavsky, Ford’s personal physician for the last 10 years, and CEO of the Henry Ford Innovation Institute and chairman of surgery at the hospital.
Ford, he said, enjoyed telling stories about growing up with his grandfather. “Mr. Ford would often talk about his involvement and side trips with his grandfather and meeting with Thomas Edison and folks such as that as if it was every day for all of us. They were wonderful, amazing museum quality stories that I will always miss,” Dulchavsky said.
Brought Ford design into modern era
Ford retired from the automaker’s board in 2005, when his son Bill was still chairman and CEO of the automaker at the time. Alan Mulally was not recruited as CEO until the following year.“Mr. Ford had a profound impact on Ford Motor Company,” Mulally said Sunday. “While we mourn Mr. Ford’s death, we also are grateful for his many contributions to the company and the auto industry.”
When Ford announced his pending retirement in 2005, son Bill called it “a bittersweet moment for me and everyone who loves the Ford Motor Co. “I speak frequently about the family values that define our company’s culture. But in doing so, I am simply echoing everything my father taught me about the importance of embracing principles, setting high standards of behavior and acting responsibly toward the people with whom we work, the customers we see and the world in which we live.
“My dad helped lead Ford into the modern era and make us who we are,” Bill Ford said at the time as he vowed to continue seeking his counsel. “His institutional knowledge is an incredible asset and his love for the company is unmatched.”
The youngest of Edsel Ford’s four children, Ford was born in 1925. He married Martha Firestone, granddaughter of Harvey Firestone and Idabelle Smith Firestone in 1947, bringing together two great automotive legacies. The couple had four children: Martha, Sheila, Elizabeth and William Clay Ford Jr., better known as Bill.
He spent 57 years of his life working for the automaker, more than half the company’s 110-year history. He was elected to the board of directors on June 4, 1948, after serving with the U.S. Navy Air Corps during World War II.
After graduating from Yale University in 1949 with a bachelor of arts/science in economics, he began working for the family business. He held a number of executive positions leading to his appointment as vice president and general manager of the Continental Division in 1954, where he updated the car his father created and oversaw the launch of the classic Continental Mark II in 1955.
There were only two pictures on the wall in his Ford headquarters office: his father’s Continental and the new Mark II. In 1956, he took over corporate product planning and design, becoming vice president of product design in 1973.
When the design committee was formed in 1957, Ford became its first chairman and he kept that post until he retired from the company in 1989. In 1978, Ford was elected chairman of the executive committee and appointed a member of the office of the chief executive. He was elected vice chairman of the board in 1980 and chairman of the finance committee in 1987. He retired from his post as vice chairman in 1989 and as chairman of the finance committee in 1995.
Disappointment for young Ford
In David Halberstam’s “The Reckoning,” a profile of Ford Motor and Nissan, he described Henry II’s ascension to lead the company as a disappointment for younger brother William, also known as Bill Ford Sr.“For a time that was hard on Bill Ford Sr., who had a genuine love of cars and probably a more natural affinity for the product side than his older brother. He spent much of a lifetime in jobs with titles, but he rarely had power, and on more than one occasion he saw his pet projects dismantled,” Halberstam wrote.
During the infamous showdown in 1978 between Henry II and Lee Iacocca that led to Henry firing the charismatic executive, Halberstam portrayed Bill as offering a sympathetic ear to Iacocca, but he lacked the power to reverse his firing.
But he played an important, if spur-of-the-moment, role in reinforcing the family’s firm control of the enterprise, according to Halberstam.
In 1956 when Henry II was working with Goldman Sachs on the company’s initial public stock offering, the older brother was prepared to sign off on a plan that would keep 30% of the voting power in the family’s hands through a special class of shares.
Just before the decision was made, Bill walked into brother Henry’s office and said, “I don’t know about you, Henry, but I like owning this company. Let’s be a little more on the safe side and make it 40%.”
David Lewis, 87, a retired University of Michigan history professor and author of “A Public Image of Henry Ford,” published in 1976, and now working on a biography of Henry Ford II, interviewed William Clay Ford in May 1990, taping a 2½-hour recording of his lifelong reminiscences.
“He was asked in the early 1950s by Ernest Breech, the company chairman, to study whether to revive the Lincoln Continental. He gathered a little staff and talked the company into going ahead. There were about 10 designs for styling and it’s well known that Bill’s design won out. So the company used his design for several years in the early 1950s for cars that sold for a princely $10,000.”
A few years later, the Continental Division was discontinued as the only Ford division that was unprofitable.
Bill Chapin, 65, of Grosse Pointe, president of the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn and grandson of the founder of Hudson Motor Car Co., which later became American Motors, said Ford’s work on the Continental gave the company newfound prestige.
“Although the Continental Mark II was not a successful product, it certainly brought prestige and prominence to Ford Motor Co. Some people consider it the most beautiful American car, ever. And that was Bill Ford’s project, all the way through. If you look at what Ford Motor is trying to do with Lincoln today ... I think they could take some thoughts from his playbook.”
.
Lions era begins with broken leg
Ford broke his leg severely in the 1950s and was in a cast for many months, Lewis said. It was then that he became a Detroit Lions board member. He couldn’t participate in athletics anymore personally but he could be involved.“He did want to be chairman of the company after Henry II retired, but he didn’t want to be CEO. Henry said, you’ve got to be CEO to be chairman, and to do that you’ll have to give up the Detroit Lions,” Lewis said. “He refused to do that. His blood ran Ford blue, of course, but on the other hand, he loved the Lions. So he gave up that ambition to be chairman.”
As Lions owner, Ford was known as a generous man to players and employees but often loyal to a fault.
Ford, who grew up a fan, became the NFL’s second-longest tenured current owner, second only to Grosse Pointe Shores’ Ralph Wilson, who founded the Buffalo Bills in 1959.
Former players swear by Ford’s kindness and save their harshest words for some of the managers he employed. Old coaches appreciate his loyalty that fans came to question. And people across the league insist the NFL — and football in Detroit — wouldn’t be where it is today if not for Ford’s decision to rescue the team from a syndicate of 144 stockholders.
He helped Detroit keep its Thanksgiving game tradition and brought two Super Bowls to the city, though Detroit was only the host and not a participant.
The Lions made just 10 playoff appearances in Ford’s 50 seasons as owner and won only one postseason game, a 38-6 victory over the Dallas Cowboys in 1992.
After Bobby Ross quit midway through the 2000 season because of health problems, Ford hired Matt Millen as general manager, and the Lions endured one of the darkest periods in NFL history for any team, going 31-84.
Millen said Ford was driven to win. “People have the wrong thoughts on him when I read different comments or I hear things,” Millen told the Free Press on Sunday. “People don’t have any idea of what Mr. Ford was or is. ... He was loyal. He was just one of the best people I’ve ever met.”
Lillian Schemansky, 42, of Eastpointe, has worked the last decade as the senior Ford’s personal assistant at Ford’s lakefront Grosse Pointe Shores estate. Schemansky said “he was hilarious, very soft-spoken, and he never put on airs with anyone. I can’t speak on his personal life because I am under a confidentiality contract. But I will deeply, deeply miss him — miss seeing that smile every morning.”
Schemansky said she was upset Sunday when she saw reactions to Ford’s death on the Internet from disgruntled Lions fans. “It’s very upsetting to see people bashing Mr. Ford as a football owner who lost. He gave everything he had to give people a winning team. I know from talking to him — that’s all he wanted, and it wasn’t for selfish gain. He was as much of a fan as you and I are.”
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Martha Firestone Ford; daughters Martha Ford Morse (Peter), Sheila Ford Hamp (Steven), and Elizabeth Ford Kontulis (Charles); son William Clay Ford Jr. (Lisa); 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held privately.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent in the name of William Clay Ford to the Henry Ford Museum at 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn 48124 or to Dr. Scott Dulchavsky’s Innovation Institute at Henry Ford Health System at 2799 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit 48045.
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