William Clay Ford Sr., last surviving grandson of Henry Ford, dies at 88

Crain News Service and wire reports

DETROIT (March 10, 2014) — William Clay Ford Sr., a former Ford Motor Co. vice chairman and the last surviving grandson of company founder Henry Ford, died March 9 at age 88.

He died of pneumonia in his home in Grosse Pointe, Mich., the auto maker said in a statement.

Mr. Ford, the father of current executive chairman William Clay Ford Jr., joined the company's board of directors in 1948. He was 23 at the time.

He took a job with the auto maker the next year, the start of a career that ended with his retirement from Ford's board in 2005. Many of his roles were in planning and strategy. He chaired the company's Design Committee for 32 years.

On the board of directors, Mr. Ford had long been a member of the powerful Finance Committee. He was chairman of the committee from 1987 through 1995. The Finance Committee decides how the auto maker allocates capital and other funds, giving it control over which product programs are approved.

William Clay Ford Sr. was born in Detroit on March 14, 1925, the youngest of the four children of Eleanor Clay and Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. Benson Ford died in 1978; Henry Ford II, longtime CEO and chairman of the company, died in 1987; and Josephine Ford died in 2005.

William Sr. attended Detroit University School in Grosse Pointe, Mich., and Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Conn., according to a company biography. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy's Air Corps in 1943 and was in flight training when he was discharged two years later at the end of World War II.

In 1947 he married the former Martha Firestone, whose grandfather, Harvey, had founded the Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. and was friends with Henry Ford. They had three daughters and one son.

Mr. Ford graduated from Yale University in 1949 with a degree in economics, then joined Ford Motor's sales and advertising staff. In 1951 he became quality-control manager for the Lincoln-Mercury Division's jet-engine defense project.

Time magazine put Mr. Ford and his two brothers on its May 18, 1953, cover, with Henry Ford II, the company's president, at the wheel.

‘Handsome, athletic, charming'

William Clay Ford “was handsome, athletic, charming and, unlike [brother] Benson, showed some flair for the company business, both in design and finance,” Automotive News wrote in a 2003 retrospective that addressed Henry Ford II's higher rank among the siblings.

Bill Ford was made general manager of the Continental Division in 1954.

The two-door Continental Mark II was the most expensive car sold by the company. It also lost money, and plans to expand the lineup were abandoned. Over Bill Ford's objections, the division was folded into Lincoln shortly after the company's initial public offering in 1956.

“Just as Ford stock was being sold to the public, and the company was being reorganized along the lines of GM so that it was no longer a family business in the same sense that it had been for over a half century, the family drama involving the isolation of Benson and Bill reached its denouement,” authors Peter Collier and David Horowitz wrote in their 1987 book, The Fords: An American Epic.

“Bill, the family's high achiever, began a long night of the soul in which he would test his lower limits.”

He was also owner of the NFL's Detroit Lions after buying full control of the franchise for $4.5 million in 1964.

Surviving family

Besides his son, Mr. Ford also is survived by his wife of 66 years, Martha Firestone Ford; daughters Martha Ford Morse, Sheila Ford Hamp, and Elizabeth Ford Kontulis; 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

“My father was a great business leader and humanitarian who dedicated his life to the company and the community,” William Clay Ford Jr. said in a statement. “He also was a wonderful family man, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him, yet he will continue to inspire us all.”

Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in the statement: “Mr. Ford had a profound impact on Ford Motor Co. The company extends its deepest sympathies to the many members of the extended Ford family at this difficult time. While we mourn Mr. Ford's death, we also are grateful for his many contributions to the company and the auto industry.”

‘Eye for styling'

The 1987 death of his older brother, Henry II, made William Sr. the family patriarch, and he would help preside over family meetings to monitor company finances.

Nick Scheele, a former Ford Motor president and former CEO of Jaguar Cars, said William Sr. was one of the key supporters of Ford's 1990 purchase of Jaguar, the British sports-car maker, and appreciated fine European design.