From Detroit Free Press
DETROIT — William Clay Ford, the last surviving grandson of Henry Ford, plans to retire from the Ford Motor Co. Board of Directors after nearly 57 years, the company announced Wednesday.
Ford, who turns 80 Monday, is the father of chairman and CEO Bill Ford and has been on the board for more than half of the company’s history, elected before he even graduated from Yale University.
Overshadowed by his brother, Henry Ford II, who ran the company from 1945 to 1980, William Clay Ford is perhaps best known as the owner and chairman of the Detroit Lions, positions he apparently plans to keep.
A member of the powerful finance committee, Ford informed the board Wednesday that he will not stand for re-election when his term expires in May. At the board’s request, he will be named director emeritus.
There are no plans to replace him on the board, said company spokesman Oscar Suris.
“This is obviously a bittersweet moment for me and everyone who loves the Ford Motor Co.,” Bill Ford said in a statement. “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 serve and the world in which we live.”
Carl Reichardt, the second longest-serving board member, thanked William Clay Ford on behalf of the entire board, saying, “He has made innumerable contributions to the company and its shareholders during his 57 years, and the board is gratified that he will remain available to us as director emeritus during these challenging times.”
The company Ford leaves in his son’s hands is working through the lowest market share in at least 25 years — even as profits grew to $3.5 billion last year.
Ford Motor Co. stock closed Wednesday at $12.34 , near its lowest level in a year. Perhaps as a show of confidence, William Clay Ford purchased 2,667 shares of common stock for $33,470, the company said in a filing Tuesday with the federal Securities and Exchange Commission.
He directly owns more than 8 million shares of common stock and 4.9 million shares of the family’s Class B shares that give them expanded voting rights. Ford’s retirement has no impact on his ownership stake.
In a statement, Ford said: “Leaving the board will relieve me of formal duties and give me more flexibility, but I still expect to spend as much time as possible with the extended family of Ford people and will gladly help the company and the board in any way I can. The Ford Motor Co. has always been part of my life and I continue to draw a lot of energy from this wonderful and exciting business.”
Raised in Luxury
Born in 1925, when his family was one of the best known in the United States, William Clay Ford was raised in the family’s opulent Lake St. Clair estate in what is now Grosse Pointe Shores. It was built by his father, Edsel, who was Henry Ford’s only child.
Despite his small size, William Clay Ford was an avid sportsman. He earned seven athletic letters at Yale, where he was captain of the soccer and tennis teams.
The only member of his generation to be active in athletics, according to “The Fords: An American Epic” by Peter Collier and David Horowitz, Ford said he loved sports for their democratic values, the fact that he could win or lose on his merits, rather than his connections.
Ford joined the Navy in 1945, where he won an athletic competition among hundreds of cadets. “Without anyone knowing my name or who I was or whether I had a dime, I did it on my own,” he said years later.
The University of Michigan named its outdoor tennis courts for Ford, who donated $1 million for the facility.
While attending Yale after the war, Collier and Horowitz wrote, young Ford secretly dated Martha Firestone, the granddaughter of one of his grandfather’s best friends and camping buddies, tire magnate Harvey Firestone.
Their 1947 marriage, in Akron, Ohio, united two of the nation’s great fortunes, and was witnessed by members of the Rockefeller and Edison families.
Perhaps because of his youth, athleticism and genial nature, he was by far the favorite grandson of Henry Ford. When arranging for the succession of the company’s management, the company founder had tried to bypass his namesake, Henry Ford II, in favor of then 18-year-old Billy, according to “Ford: The Men and the Machine,” by Robert Lacey.
But William Clay’s older brother, the swashbuckling Hank the Deuce, held on to company’s reins for the next four decades, marrying three times, cutting a well-publicized swath through high society from Grosse Pointe to the Cote d’Azur, and generally keeping the family business going strong.
Meanwhile, William Clay Ford lived quietly, tending to the design end of the family car business and raising his family.
He was first elected to the Ford board on June 4, 1948, and started working at the company after he graduated from Yale in 1949. He served in a variety of executive positions before being appointed vice president and general manager of the Continental Division in 1954. In 1956, Ford assumed responsibility for corporate product planning and design.
He oversaw the design and development of a number of classic vehicles, including the elegant Continental Mark II. He was appointed vice president of product design in 1973.
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 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.
As he ascended the company and family ladder, he continued his love of sports, buying the Detroit Lions football team in 1964 for $4.5 million.
He also enjoyed his children’s athletic pursuits, but he eventually forced himself to stop coming to Bill Jr.’s hockey games because each time he showed up, his son got into a fight.
“He thought I fought for his benefit,” Bill Jr. recalled. “Every time he’d come, I’d get in a brawl.”
Ford Sr. similarly managed to beat a problem with alcohol: After years of hard drinking, he just stopped one day in 1965.
His son once told the Detroit Free Press that he doesn’t remember his father’s drinking or the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings held at the family mansion.
But he does remember the stern talk his father gave him when he brought home a weak report card.
The father told the son that if he wanted to succeed in life, like his hero Gordie Howe, he was going to have to work hard.
“I don’t care if you get straight A’s. I don’t care if you score three goals. But I do care that you give your best effort every day, and in everything you do.”
Copyright 2005 Detroit Free Press. All Rights Reserved.
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