Ford family | |
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Current region | Michigan, U.S. |
Founded |
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Founder | William Ford |
Connected families | Firestone |
Estate(s) | Fair Lane Edsel and Eleanor Ford House |
The Ford family is an American family from the U.S. state of Michigan. They are best known for their control of the Ford Motor Company automobile manufacturer which was originally founded by Henry Ford in the early twentieth century. Henry's grandson William Clay Ford Sr. and his family have controlled the Detroit Lions franchise of the National Football League since late 1963. The Ford family are also members of the Episcopal Church. [1]
Although the Ford family's ownership stake in the automaker had declined to less than 50% of the company's equity as of 2010 [update] , the family retained operational control through a special class of stock that was established early in the company's history and retained when the company made its initial public offering in 1956. [2] [3] [4] [5] The family owns all of the company's Class B shares, which are collectively entitled to elect 40% of the company's board of directors, with the remaining 60% elected by the holders of the company's publicly traded common stock.
Isaac Ford (1749—?) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
William Ford (1775—1818?) | Rebecca Jennings (1776—1851) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Samuel Ford (c. 1792—1842) | Jonathan "John" Ford (c. 1799—1864) | Thomasine Smith (1803—1847) | George Ford (c. 1811—1864) | Henry Ford (c. 1813—?) | Stephen Ford (1815—?) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rebecca Ford [Flaherty] (1825—1895) | William Ford (1826—1905) | Mary Litogot O'Hern (c. 1839—1876) | Jane Ford [Smith] (1829—1851) | Henry Ford Sr. (1840—1901) | Mary Ford [Ford] (c. 1832—1882) | Nancy Ford [Flaherty] (1834—1920) | Samuel Ford (1837—1884) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Infant (1861—1861) | Ford Founder Henry Ford (1863—1947) | Clara Jane Bryant (1866—1950) | John Ford (c. 1865—1927) | Margaret Ford [Ruddiman] (1867—1960) | Jane Ford (c. 1869—1906) | William Ford (1871—1959) | Robert Ford (1873—1934) | Infant (c. 1876—1876) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Edsel Ford (1893—1943) | Eleanor Lowthian Clay (1896—1976) | Harvey S. Firestone Jr. (1898—1973) | Elizabeth Parke (1897—1990) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Henry Ford II (1917—1987) | Anne McDonnell (1919—1996) | Benson Ford Sr. (1919—1978) | Edith McNaughton (1920—1980) | Josephine Clay Ford [Ford] (1923—2005) | Walter Buhl Ford II (1920—1991) | William Clay Ford Sr. (1925—2014) | Martha Parke Firestone (b. 1925) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Charlotte M. Ford (b. 1941) | Anne Ford (b. 1943) | Edsel Ford II (b. 1948) | Walter Buhl Ford III (1943—2010) | Eleanor Clay Ford [Sullivan] (b. 1946) | Josephine Clay Ford [Ingle] (b. 1949) | Alfred Brush Ford (b. 1950) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elena Anne Ford (b. 1966) | Benson Ford Jr. (b. 1949) | Lynn Ford [Alandt] (b. 1951) | Martha Parke "Muffy" Ford [Morse] (b. 1948) | Sheila Ford [Hamp] (b. 1951) | William Clay Ford Jr. (b. 1957) | Elizabeth Ford [Kontulis] (b. 1961) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The following is a list of businesses in which the Ford family have held a controlling or otherwise significant interest.
Henry Ford was an American industrialist and business magnate. As the founder of the Ford Motor Company, he is credited as a pioneer in making automobiles affordable for middle-class Americans through the system that came to be known as Fordism. In 1911, he was awarded a patent for the transmission mechanism that would be used in the Ford Model T and other automobiles.
Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, United States. It is an inner-ring suburb in Metro Detroit, bordering Detroit to the south and west, and roughly 7 miles (11.3 km) west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976, ranking as the seventh-most populous city in Michigan. Dearborn is best known as the hometown of the Ford Motor Company and of its founder, Henry Ford.
Henry Ford II, sometimes known as "Hank the Deuce" or simply "the Deuce", was an American businessman in the automotive industry. He was the oldest son of Edsel Ford I and oldest grandson of Henry Ford. He served as president of the Ford Motor Company from 1945 to 1960, chief executive officer (CEO) from 1947 to 1979, and chairman of the board of directors from 1960 to 1980. Under his leadership, Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation in 1956. From 1943 to 1950, he also served as president of the Ford Foundation.
Edsel Bryant Ford was an American business executive and philanthropist who was the only child of pioneering industrialist Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Jane Bryant Ford. He was the president of Ford Motor Company from 1919 until his death in 1943.
Grosse Pointe refers to an affluent coastal area next to Detroit, Michigan, United States, that comprises five adjacent individual cities. From southwest to northeast, they are:
The du Pont family or Du Pont family is a prominent American family descended from Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739–1817). It has been one of the richest families in the United States since the mid-19th century, when it founded its fortune in the gunpowder business. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it expanded its wealth through the chemical industry and the automotive industry, with substantial interests in the DuPont company, General Motors, and various other corporations.
William Clay Ford Sr. was an American businessman who was on the boards of Ford Motor Company and the Edison Institute. Ford owned the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL) from 1964 until his death. He was the youngest child of Edsel Ford and was the last surviving grandchild of Henry Ford.
Fair Lane was the estate of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, in the United States. It was named after an area in Cork in Ireland where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born. The 1,300-acre (530 ha) estate along the River Rouge included a large limestone house, an electrical power plant on the dammed river, a greenhouse, a boathouse, riding stables, a children's playhouse, a treehouse, and extensive landmark gardens designed by Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen.
William Clay Ford Jr. is an American businessman, serving as executive chair of Ford Motor Company. The great-grandson of company founder Henry Ford, Ford joined the board in 1988 and has served as chair since January 1999. Ford also served as the president, CEO, and COO until turning over those roles to former Boeing executive Alan Mulally in September 2006. Ford is also the vice chairman of the Detroit Lions NFL franchise. Ford serves as a chairman of the United States-Mexico Chamber of Commerce.
Ermenegildo Zegna N.V., also known as Zegna Group or the Ermenegildo Zegna Group, is an Italian luxury fashion house headquartered in Milan. It was founded in 1910 by Ermenegildo Zegna in Trivero, Biella, in the Piedmont region of northern Italy. It is led by the Zegna family and is one of the most renowned Italian men’s clothing businesses internationally. As of 2021, it is a public company that is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
New Center is a commercial and residential district located in Detroit, Michigan, adjacent to Midtown, one mile (1.6 km) north of the Cultural Center, and approximately three miles (5 km) north of Downtown. The area is centered just west of the intersection of Woodward Avenue and Grand Boulevard, and is bounded by, and includes the Virginia Park Historic District on the north, the Edsel Ford Freeway (I-94) on the south, John R Street on the east and the Lodge Freeway on the west. New Center, and the surrounding areas north of I-94, are sometimes seen as coterminous with the North End, while in fact separate districts.
The Ford Motor Company is an American automaker, the world's fifth largest based on worldwide vehicle sales. Based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, it was founded by Henry Ford on June 16, 1903. Ford Motor Company would go on to become one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. The largest family-controlled company in the world, the Ford Motor Company has been in continuous family control for over 110 years. Ford now encompasses two brands: Ford and Lincoln. Ford once owned 5 other luxury brands: Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, Aston Martin, and Mercury. Over time, those brands were sold to other companies and Mercury was discontinued.
Percival Lea Dewhurst Perry, 1st Baron Perry KBE was an English motor vehicle manufacturer who served as chairman of Ford Motor Company Limited in Britain for 20 years from its incorporation in 1928, completing almost a lifetime's work with Henry Ford. He also led the establishment of Slough Estates.
Josephine Clay "Dody" Ford was an American philanthropist and the only granddaughter of Henry Ford.
The Lincoln Motor Company Plant was an automotive plant at Livernois, 6200 West Warren Avenue Detroit, Michigan, later known as the Detroit Edison Warren Service Center. The complex was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978, due to its historic association with World War I Liberty engines and the Lincoln Motor Company. However, the main structures were demolished in 2003 and NHL designation was withdrawn in 2005.
John Simpson Gray was a candymaker, business man, and banker from Detroit. He was also an original investor in and the first president of the Ford Motor Company.
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand, and luxury cars under its Lincoln brand. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family. They have minority ownership but a plurality of the voting power.
Martha Firestone Ford is an American businesswoman and former principal owner and chairperson of the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). Ford is also on the board of the Henry Ford Health System.
Benson Ford Sr., originally named Edsel Ford Jr, was an American businessman in the automotive industry, a vice-president of Ford Motor Company, and national co-chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Benson Ford remains famous for: being the first prominent person in the Ford family to actively preach religious harmony between faiths through his NCCJ co-chairmanship ; through the internationally famous Benson Ford Research Center in Dearborn, Michigan, which bears his name; and the now historic 1924 Great Lakes freighter Benson Ford Ship named after him, now known as the Benson Ford Shiphouse, in Put-In-Bay, Ohio. Benson was also noteworthy as being the one member of the Ford family most closely associated with Lincoln-Mercury, rather than Ford, where under Benson's guidance the experimental Lincoln Futura car was developed. The Futura later became the most famous and recognizable car in the world for several years, television's Batmobile driven by Batman actor Adam West.
The names of fashionable families who were already Episcopalian, like the Morgans, or those, like the Fricks, who now became so, goes on interminably: Aldrich, Astor, Biddle, Booth, Brown, Du Pont, Firestone, Ford, Gardner, Mellon, Morgan, Procter, the Vanderbilt, Whitney. Episcopalians branches of the Baptist Rockefellers and Jewish Guggenheims even appeared on these family trees.