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Ford Foundation |
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Henry and Edsel Ford and the Ford Foundation
Many generations of families tilled hard soil in the rugged terrain and damp, cool temperatures of Ireland to produce potato crops. That is, until 1845 when the potato blight disaster struck virtually every farmer, making survival nearly impossible. The majority of farmers failed to yield a crop for two consecutive years forcing one out of seven families to emigrate to the United States, including William Ford of County Cork, Ireland.
At age 21, William joined his father, uncle, grandmother, mother, six brothers and sisters, and cousins on an arduous journey that took the life of his mother. Their sailing voyage across the Atlantic ended in Detroit, Michigan. Previous emigrants of the Ford family had described acres of soft loam soil, perfect for farming. Sheer determination motivated the Fords to complete the trek on foot, through dense forests, to their final destination. The weary travelers were united with family in what they eventually called home - Dearborn.
After a decade of successful farming, William Ford married Mary Litogot, daughter of another farmer. While the couple had six children, it was their eldest son Henry who provided the manufacturing techniques that changed the world and made Ford a household name.
By age twelve, two extraordinary events took place to shape Henry's future. The gift of a watch from his father encouraged Henry's interest in machines and allowed him to show his mechanical aptitude as he took apart and reassembled timepieces using simple, homemade tools. Later that same year, young Henry saw his first road vehicle as it traveled powered by a steam engine - it was the first horseless machine used for threshing or sawing wood. Then, at the Centennial Exposition of 1876, Henry saw a gasoline-powered engine. He was entranced.
Tinkering with watches in-between farm chores was not enough for a boy like Henry. At age seventeen, he set out on foot for Detroit to work at the Dry Dock Engine Company where he honed his skills as a machinist. Henry met Clara Bryant and the two were married in 1888 just before he turned twenty-five. He repaired engines and, in 1893, successfully built and tested his first gasoline-powered engine. Though Europe produced motor vehicles by hand, no country had captured the commercial manufacturing market. In 1896, at age thirty-three, Ford drove his first automobile with his wife and 3 year-old son, Edsel, to his father's farm in Dearborn.
During his time as chief engineer of the Edison Illuminating Company, Henry built his first car in a small shop behind his home. In 1903, he began the Ford Motor Company. His automobile business spawned the Model A Fordmobile, the Model B, and the Model C. In 1909, his most successful endeavor, the Model T, arrived. The popularity of the automobile allowed the increase of factory employees from 450 in 1908 to 32,000 in 1916. With demand for the product exceeding the rate of supply, Henry increased the work output of each employee to ensure an increase in production by using an automated assembly line belt where "each worker would have every second necessary but not a single unnecessary second."
In 1914, to compensate for the long hours of monotonous work, Ford increased the minimum daily wage to $5 and introduced profit sharing benefits for his employees. By 1924, the company had manufactured 10 million automobiles, mostly Model Ts. Though the Ford Motor Company was hard hit during the Great Depression, their factories were inundated with government purchase orders during World War II.
In 1936, the time between these two historic events, the Ford Foundation was established. At first, the foundation's programs worked to improve societal conditions in the state of Michigan. Though, in its early time, critics claimed that its educational programs served Henry Ford by producing educated machinists and mechanics for his own factories.
By the close of the war, Ford had supplied the U.S. with 8,684 B-24 "Liberator" Bombers, 57,851 airplane engines, thousands of engine superchargers and generators, 4,401 military gliders, along with tanks, armored cars, jeeps, engines for robot bombs, mobile canteens, four-wheel-drive trucks and autos, grenades, and engine-powered landing crafts. During this time, Edsel took over the Ford Motor Company while his father supervised other plants. Sadly, Edsel became ill and died in 1943.
In 1950, the Ford Foundation changed its focus, becoming a foundation that provided grants and loans nationally and internationally. The Foundation's resources grew with gifts and bequests of Ford Motor Company stock made by Henry and Edsel. Its areas of interest also expanded, making it the largest national/ international institution of its kind. Yet, in 1976, the Ford connection ended when the last Ford family member resigned from the Foundation board and the Foundation sold all of its Ford Company stock. By the 1990s, the Foundation had provided over $10 billion in grants and loans particularly in three areas: peace and justice; education, media, arts and culture; and building and developing communities.
Henry remained an active visitor at his factories until he was eighty-one. To some he was an industrialist, to others an inventor, but few can deny that Henry Ford changed the world because he dared to turn a dream into reality.