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]
| Ford family | |
|---|---|
 Henry Ford .jpg) Henry Ford II (b).jpg) William C. Ford Jr. | |
| Current region | Michigan, U.S. |
| Founded |
|
| Founder | William Ford |
| Connected families | Firestone |
| Estate(s) | Fair Lane Edsel and Eleanor Ford House |
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.
Family tree
edit| 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) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Businesses
editThe following is a list of businesses in which the Ford family have held a controlling or otherwise significant interest.
References
edit- ^ 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.
- ^ Muller, Joann. "Ford Family's Stake Is Smaller, But They're Richer And Still Firmly In Control". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
- ^ Muller, Joann. "Ford Family Shuffles Wealth". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
- ^ Kennon, Joshua. "Examining the shareholder structure of an iconic American company". The Balance. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
- ^ Muller, Joann. "William Clay Ford's Legacy Cemented Family's Dynasty". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
Further reading
edit- Wilson, Richard Guy (2000). America's Castles: The Auto Baron Estates. A&E Television Network.
- Bridenstine, James (1989). Edsel and Eleanor Ford House. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-2161-5.
- Lewis, David (1976). The Public Image of Henry Ford: An American Folk Hero and His Company. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814318928.
External links
edit- Ford Family Tree
- Henry Ford II Biography on IMDB
- Henry Ford Estate
- The Ford Legacy
- The Ford Family Archived 2020-12-02 at the Wayback Machine
- A Family Portrait Archived 2019-09-09 at the Wayback Machine
- Anne Ford Johnson Obituary