Ford family (Michigan)

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Ford family
Henry ford 1919.jpg
Henry Ford
Henry Ford II in Nederland om zijn jacht te bekijken. Hier op Schiphol, Bestanddeelnr 914-9054 (cropped).jpg
Henry Ford II
Bill Ford 2011 (cropped)(b).jpg
William C. Ford Jr.
Current region Michigan, U.S.
Place of origin County Cork, Ireland
Founded
  • 1847
  • 177 years ago
FounderWilliam 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]

Contents

Although the Ford family's ownership stake in the automaker had declined to less than 50% of the company's equity as of 2010, 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.

Family tree

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.
(19252014)
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)

Businesses

The following is a list of companies in which the Ford family have held a controlling or otherwise significant interest.

Related Research Articles

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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.

References

  1. W. Williams, Peter (2016). Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press. p. 176. ISBN   9781469626987. 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.
  2. Muller, Joann. "Ford Family's Stake Is Smaller, But They're Richer And Still Firmly In Control". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  3. Muller, Joann. "Ford Family Shuffles Wealth". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  4. Kennon, Joshua. "Examining the shareholder structure of an iconic American company". The Balance. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  5. Muller, Joann. "William Clay Ford's Legacy Cemented Family's Dynasty". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.

Further reading