Henry Ford II (September 4, 1917 – September 29, 1987), commonly known as Hank the Deuce, was an American businessman in the
automotive industry
The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, selling, Maintenance, repairing, and Custom car, modification of motor ve ...
. He was the oldest son of
Edsel Ford I and oldest grandson of
Henry Ford. He served as president of the
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...
from 1945 to 1960,
chief executive officer
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization.
CEOs find roles in variou ...
(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
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
.
Early life and education
Henry Ford II was born in Detroit, Michigan, to
Eleanor Clay Ford and
Edsel Ford on September 4, 1917. He, brothers
Benson and
William
William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
, and sister
Josephine, grew up amid affluence. He graduated from
The Hotchkiss School in 1936.
He attended
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...
— where he served on the business staff of ''
The Yale Record'', the campus humor magazine — but left in 1940 before graduation.
During this time, he became a member of the
Zeta Psi fraternity.
Career
When his father
Edsel, president of Ford, died of cancer in May 1943 (during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
), Henry Ford II was serving in the
US Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...
and unable immediately to inherit the presidency of the family-owned business. The elderly and ailing
Henry Ford I, company founder, decided to re-assume the presidency, though mentally inconsistent, suspicious, and considered no longer fit for the presidency position by most of the company's directors. For the previous 20 years, although he had long been without any official executive title, the elder Ford had maintained ''de facto'' control over the company; the board and the management had never seriously defied him, and this moment was not different. The directors elected him, and he served until the end of the war. During this period, the company began to decline, losing over $10 million a month (). The administration of President
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
considered a government acquisition of the company to ensure continued war production, but the idea never progressed to execution.
Henry Ford II left the Navy in July 1943 and joined the company's management a few weeks later. He assumed presidency of the business on September 21, 1945. Since it had been assumed that Edsel Ford would continue in his capacity as president of the company for much longer than turned out to be the case, Henry Ford II had by then received little preparation for the position. He inherited the company during a chaotic period; its European factories had suffered a great deal of damage during the war, the company was losing money, and domestic sales were in decline.
Henry Ford II immediately adopted an aggressive management style. One of his first acts as company president was to place
John Bugas in charge of company management, dismissing much of his grandfather's inner circle, especially
Harry Bennett, chief of the Ford Service Department, whom the elder Ford had hired in 1921 to oversee security at the vast Ford Rouge Plant complex, and nearly two decades later had become a lightning rod in efforts to prevent
unionization
Unionization is the creation and growth of modern trade unions. Trade unions were often seen as a Left-wing politics, left-wing, Socialism, socialist concept, whose popularity has increased during the 19th century when a rise in industrial capit ...
of the Ford labor force, by violent means if necessary. Next, acknowledging his inexperience, Henry II hired several seasoned executives to support him. He hired former
General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
executives
Ernest Breech and Lewis Crusoe away from the
Bendix Corporation. Breech was to serve in the coming years as the young Ford's business mentor, and the Breech–Crusoe team would form the core of Ford's business expertise, offering much-needed experience.
Additionally, Ford hired ten young up-and-comers, known as the "
Whiz Kids". These ten, gleaned from an
Army Air Forces statistical team, Ford envisioned as giving the company the ability to innovate and stay current. Two of them,
Arjay Miller and
Robert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ...
, went on to serve as presidents of Ford themselves. A third member,
J. Edward Lundy, served in key financial roles for several decades and helped to establish Ford Finance's position as a major worldwide financial operation. As a team, the "Whiz Kids" are probably best remembered as the design team for the
1949 Ford, which they took from concept to production in 19 months, and which re-established Ford as a formidable automotive company. It was reported that 100,000 orders for this car were taken the day it was introduced to the market.
Ford became president and CEO of
Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...
in 1945. In 1956, the company became a publicly traded corporation and dedicated its new
world headquarters building. During his term as CEO of Ford, he lived in
Grosse Pointe,
Michigan
Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...
. On July 13, 1960, he was elected chairman before resigning as president on November 9, 1960. He would resign as CEO on October 1, 1979, and as chairman on March 13, 1980.
His nephew,
William Clay Ford Jr. would later assume these positions after 20 years of non-Ford family management of the company. During this interim, the family's interests were represented on the board by Henry's younger brother
William Clay Ford Sr., as well as Henry's son
Edsel Ford II and his nephew William Clay Ford Jr.
During the early 1960s Ford engaged in lengthy negotiations with
Enzo Ferrari to buy
Ferrari
Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...
, with a view to expanding Ford's presence in motorsport in general and at the
Le Mans 24 Hours in particular. However, negotiations collapsed due to disputes over control of Ferrari's
Scuderia Ferrari
Scuderia Ferrari (; ), currently racing under Scuderia Ferrari HP, is the racing division of luxury Italian auto manufacturer Ferrari and the racing team that competes in Formula One racing. The team is also known by the nickname "the Pranc ...
racing division. The collapse of the deal led him to launch the
Ford GT40 project, intended to end Ferrari's dominance at Le Mans (the Italian marque won the race six consecutive times from 1960 to 1965). In 1966, after two difficult years in 1964 and 1965, the GT40 Mark IIs locked out the podium at both the
Daytona 24 Hours and the
Sebring 12 Hours before taking the first of four consecutive wins at
Le Mans
Le Mans (; ) is a Communes of France, city in Northwestern France on the Sarthe (river), Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the Provinces of France, province of Maine (province), Maine, it is now the capital of ...
.

In the late 1960s, Ford became personally involved in the development of the
Lincoln Continental Mark III. He gave his enthusiastic approval for both the final exterior and interior designs. The result was a Ford Motor Company flagship that single-handedly made Lincoln profitable and spawned a three-decade market rivalry between the
Lincoln Mark series and Cadillac's
Eldorado series. During this time, Ford also reformed the company's European operations, merging the previously separate (and competing)
British and
German subsidiaries into a single
Ford of Europe
Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
History
Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Bri ...
with a common product line and merged manufacturing operations. During the 1970s, Ford of Europe expanded substantially, with new factories in
Saarlouis
Saarlouis (; , ; formerly Sarre-Libre and Saarlautern) is a town in Saarland, Germany, capital of the district of Saarlouis (district), Saarlouis. In 2020, the town had a population of 34,409. Saarlouis is located on the river Saar (river), Saar. ...
and
Valencia
Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...
, the latter becoming one of Ford's biggest plants outside the US.
In 1973–74, as it became clear that the U.S. automobile market would begin to favor smaller, more fuel-efficient cars,
Ford's then-President
Lee Iacocca was highly interested in buying
powertrain
In a motor vehicle, the powertrain comprises the main components that generate engine power, power and deliver that power to the road surface, water, or air. This includes the internal combustion engine, engine, transmission (mechanics), trans ...
s from
Honda Motor Company as a way to minimize the cost of developing a small Ford car for the North American market, such as a modified version of
Ford of Europe
Ford of Europe GmbH is a subsidiary company of Ford Motor Company founded in 1967 in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, with headquarters in Cologne, Germany.
History
Ford of Europe was founded in 1967 by the merger of Ford of Bri ...
's
Ford Fiesta. The plan was rejected by Henry Ford II, who said, "No car with my name on the hood is going to have a Jap engine inside." Although the Ford Motor Company had been selling a Mazda compact pickup truck as the Ford Courier since late 1971, Ford did not like the idea of flagship North American passenger car models moving in that direction. Ford Motor Company did go on to adapt to the era in which Japanese, German, and American participation in a globalized automobile industry became tightly integrated. For example, Ford's relationship with
Mazda
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima (town), Fuchū, Hiroshima Prefecture, Hiroshima, Japan. The company was founded on January 30, 1920, as Toyo Cork Kogyo Co., Ltd. ...
was well developed even before the end of Henry Ford II's period of influence. However, in Iacocca's view, it lagged several years behind GM and Chrysler, due to Henry Ford II's unappealable influence, before others led it forward despite his resistance.
Henry Ford II's management and management style caused the company's fortunes to fluctuate in more ways than one. For example, he allowed the offering of
public stock in 1956, the IPO raising $650 million for the company (); but the "experimental car" program instituted during his tenure, the
"Edsel", cost the company almost half that. Likewise, Henry Ford II hired in 1964 the creative Lee Iacocca, who was fundamental to the success of the
Ford Mustang, but fired him due to personal disputes in 1978. (On the break in their relationship, Iacocca quoted Ford as saying, "Sometimes you just don't like somebody." Iacocca later retorted, "If a guy is over 25 percent a jerk, he's in trouble. And Henry was 95 percent.")
Henry Ford II formally retired from all positions at Ford Motor Company on October 1, 1982, upon reaching the company's mandatory retirement age of 65, but remained the ultimate source of authority at Ford until his death in 1987.
Awards and achievements
* 1969, awarded the
Presidential Medal of Freedom from President
Lyndon B. Johnson
* 1983, inducted into the
Automotive Hall of Fame
Personal life
Henry Ford II was married three times:
* Anne McDonnell (1919–1996), a daughter of James Francis McDonnell.
They married in 1940 and divorced in 1964. The Fords had three children including
Edsel Ford II
*
Maria Cristina Vettore (1929–2008), formerly wife of Robin Willoughby Merivale Austin, a Canadian in the British Royal Navy; she and Ford married in New York City in 1965 and divorced in 1980.
* Kathleen DuRoss (born Kathleen Roberta King, 1940 – 2020),
widow of L. David DuRoss (died 1959); she and Ford were married in Carson City, Nevada, 1980. By this marriage, Ford had two stepdaughters.
Ford died of
pneumonia in Detroit at
Henry Ford Hospital on September 29, 1987, at age 70. After a private funeral service at
Christ Church Grosse Pointe, his remains were cremated and the ashes scattered.
Legacy
* The Henry Ford II World Center, the official title of the
Ford World Headquarters
The Henry Ford II World Center, also commonly known as the Ford World Headquarters and popularly known as the Glass House, is the administrative headquarters for Ford Motor Company, a 12-story, glass-faced office building designed to accommodat ...
in
Dearborn, Michigan
Dearborn is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Dearborn borders Detroit to the south and west, roughly west of downtown Detroit. In the 2020 United States ...
* The Henry Ford II Honors Program, the official honors program of
Henry Ford College
*
Henry Ford II High School, in
Sterling Heights, Michigan, is named for him
Filmography
* ''
The Ford 50th Anniversary Show'' (1953) – Broadcast live on CBS and NBC and called both "a landmark in television" and "a milestone in the cultural life of the '50s".
* ''
Thunderball'' (1965) – Extra at the Nassau Casino (uncredited)
In popular culture
Henry Ford II is portrayed by
Tracy Letts in the 2019 film ''
Ford v Ferrari'' (released under the title "Le Mans '66" in some parts of Europe).
He appears in a few scenes in the 2002 movie ''Monday Night Mayhem''. Footage of him appears in the documentary television series ''The Cars that Built America''.
See also
*
Ford family tree
*
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is an American private foundation with the stated goal of advancing human welfare. Created in 1936 by Edsel Ford and his father Henry Ford, it was originally funded by a $25,000 (about $550,000 in 2023) gift from Edsel Ford. ...
Notes
References
* Brinkley, Douglas. (2003) Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress. New York: Viking Press.
* Lacey, Robert. (1986) Ford: The Men and the Machine. Boston: Little, Brown.
* Nevins, Allan and Frank Ernest Hill (1962) Ford: Decline and Rebirth 1933–1962. New York: Scribners.
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Henry II
1917 births
1987 deaths
American chief executives in the automobile industry
American people of Belgian descent
American people of Irish descent
American people of English descent
Articles containing video clips
Businesspeople from Detroit
Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Deaths from pneumonia in Michigan
Ford executives
Family of Henry Ford
Hotchkiss School alumni
Military personnel from Michigan
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
United States Navy officers