Henry Ford owned the Ford Motor Company until his death. $200 billionHenry Ford peak net worth: $200 billion (144bn) The founder of the hugely profitable Ford Motor Company revolutionised vehicle manufacturing and brought the car to the mass market, selling over one million vehicles in 1920. In addition to other tasks, he spent two weeks selling cars, sealing the deal on five Fords. Who had served on the Leading group of Ford Engine Organization and was the last enduring grandkid of the incredible Henry Ford. [89] Investigative journalist Max Wallace noted that "whatever credibility this absurd claim may have had was soon undermined when James M. Miller, a former Dearborn Independent employee, swore under oath that Ford had told him he intended to expose Sapiro. It is difficult to remember what life was like before Mr. Ford began preaching his doctrine of salvation". [citation needed], Also, at Edsel's insistence, Ford launched Mercury in 1939 as a mid-range make to challenge Dodge and Buick, although Henry also displayed relatively little enthusiasm for it. After the war, it returned to auto manufacturing until 1925, when Ford acquired the Stout Metal Airplane Company. They frowned on heavy drinking, gambling, and on what are now called deadbeat dads. A talented team of engineers performed most of the actual work of designing the Model A (and later the flathead V8) with Ford supervising them closely and giving them overall direction. 199, box 1a, Benson Ford Research Center, The Henry Ford, Dearborn, Mich. Marquis, Samuel S. ([1923]/2007). [56][57], Ford had opposed the United States' entry into World War II[43][58] and continued to believe that international business could generate the prosperity that would head off wars. Fords legacy is one that romanticizes the American Dream. He enthusiastically described his company's adoption of vanadium steel alloys and subsequent metallurgic R&D work. As one German explained, "Automobiles have so completely changed the American's mode of life that today one can hardly imagine being without a car. His brother-in-law, Edward G. Kingsford, used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquets. Ludecke asked Ford for a contribution to the Nazi cause, but was apparently refused. [52], According to biographer Steven Watts, Ford's status as a leading industrialist gave him a worldview that warfare was wasteful folly that retarded long-term economic growth. [28] The move proved extremely profitable; instead of constant employee turnover, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. Executives started to perceive him as a more aloof and, in some ways, broken man. McIntyre, Stephen L. "The Failure of Fordism: Reform of the Automobile Repair Industry, 19131940: Roediger, David, ed "Americanism and FordismAmerican Style: Kate Richards O'hare's 'Has Henry Ford Made Good? The 29-year-old son of Edsel Ford is fresh off a summer internship at Galpin Ford, where he told AutoWeek that he sold five Fords and a Volvo. Before Fame He repaired watches in his teenage years. With this success, Murphy and other stockholders in the Detroit Automobile Company formed the Henry Ford Company on November 30, 1901, with Ford as chief engineer. [22] The original Lincoln Model L that the Lelands had introduced in 1920 was also kept in production, untouched for a decade until it became too outdated. Ford left the company to his family and 40% of Ford Motor Company still remains in the control of his great grandchildren. Ford experimented with a commercial rubber plantation in the Amazon jungle called Fordlndia; it was one of his few failures. Henry Ford was an American manufacturer and commercial tycoon who lived from July 30, 1863, to April 7, 1947. Although Ford fancied himself an engineering genius, he had little formal training in mechanical engineering and could not even read a blueprint. His introduction of the Ford Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. Let's check, How Rich is Henry Ford in 2019-2020? How much was Henry Ford's net worth? "[91] According to Spencer Blakeslee, "[t]he ADL mobilized prominent Jews and non-Jews to publicly oppose Ford's message. Without an accounting department, Ford had no way of knowing exactly how much money was being taken in and spent each month, and the company's bills and invoices were reportedly guessed at by weighing them on a scale. Ford had a vacation residence in Fort Myers, Florida, next to that of Thomas Edison, which he bought in 1915 and used until approximately 1930. "[117], In 1923, Ford's pastor, and head of his sociology department, Episcopal minister Samuel S. Marquis, claimed that Ford believed, or "once believed," in reincarnation.[118]. "[94], In July 1938, the German consul in Cleveland gave Ford, on his 75th birthday, the award of the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. He received the watch, and he witnessed the operation of a Nichols and Shepard road engine, "the first vehicle other than horse-drawn that I had ever seen". 1. He viewed the increased wages as profit-sharing linked with rewarding those who were most productive and of good character. Sales reached 250,00 by 1924, and 472,000 two years later, by which time the price had dropped to $360, around $7,000 in 2016 money. Subsequently, the Ford company adopted an annual model change system similar to that recently pioneered by its competitor General Motors (and still in use by automakers today). [64], Before the U.S. entered the war, responding to President Roosevelt's call in December 1940 for the "Great Arsenal of Democracy", Ford directed the Ford Motor Company to construct a vast new purpose-built aircraft factory at Willow Run near Detroit, Michigan. The original investors included Ford and Malcomson, the Dodge brothers, Malcomson's uncle John S. Gray, Malcolmson's secretary James Couzens, and two of Malcomson's lawyers, John W. Anderson and Horace Rackham. Ford later bound the articles into four volumes entitled "The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem," which was translated into multiple languages and distributed widely across the US and Europe. Ford dropped out of the race and soon thereafter exited racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules, demands on his time by the booming production of the Model T, and his low opinion of racing as a worthwhile activity. Ford received the backing of an old acquaintance, Alexander Y. Malcomson, a Detroit-area coal dealer. [102] In the 1920s, Ford also opened plants in Australia, India, and France, and by 1929, he had successful dealerships on six continents. [citation needed], To forestall union activity, Ford promoted Harry Bennett, a former Navy boxer, to head the Service Department. His group went to neutral Sweden and the Netherlands to meet with peace activists. Yes. Founder of Vast Automotive Empire and Leader in Mass Production", IA, The Journal of the Society for Industrial Archeology, "Leonard Wood gifts Edsel Ford half-scale replica of historic Sweepstakes", "George Washington Carver Visionaries on Innovation", "George Washington Carver begins experimental project with Henry Ford July 19, 1942", "George Washington Carver Examining Soy Fiber, Soybean Laboratory at Greenfield Village, 1939", "Fort Myers Museums, Attractions, Things to do | Edison Ford Winter Estates", "EL Doctorow's 'Ragtime' is still timely on tycoons", "History, Art and Consumerism Richard Powers' Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance", "Assassin's Creed III: Evolution of the Templar Order", "Adolf Hitler Nazi puppet of the order. The project culminated in 1942, when Ford patented an automobile made almost entirely of plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame. By the mid-1920s, his net worth was estimated around $1.2 billion, and though Ford's market share gradually diminished, the company's stunning success made its namesake one of the wealthiest men in American history. Ford finished eighth grade at a one room school,[3] Springwells Middle School. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. It ran on grain alcohol (ethanol) instead of gasoline. Ford started another company, Henry Ford and Son, and made a show of taking himself and his best employees to the new company; the goal was to scare the remaining holdout stockholders of the Ford Motor Company to sell their stakes to him before they lost most of their value. He undoubtedly created, or at the very least, perfected, the continuous assembly line for mass production. Per his will, Fords money and assets were to be left to DuRoss Ford, his three children from his first marriage (Edsel, Ann, and Charlotte), and his grandchildren. As independent dealers, the franchises grew rich and publicized not just the Ford but also the concept of automobiling; local motor clubs sprang up to help new drivers and encourage them to explore the countryside. Henry Ford had a long-held interest in materials science and engineering. 199 Trimotors were built before it was discontinued in 1933, when the Ford Airplane Division shut down because of poor sales during the Great Depression. Ludecke was introduced to Ford by Siegfried Wagner (son of the composer Richard Wagner) and his wife Winifred, both Nazi sympathizers and antisemites. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". Ford also was one of the early backers of the Indianapolis 500. Ford stated two significant events occurred in 1875 when he was 12. [36], Ford's incursion into his employees' private lives was highly controversial, and he soon backed off from the most intrusive aspects. "Four-fifths of the hundreds of letters addressed to Ford in July 1927 were from Jews, and almost without exception they praised the industrialist"[93] In January 1937, a Ford statement to The Detroit Jewish Chronicle disavowed "any connection whatsoever with the publication in Germany of a book known as the International Jew". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1IzetXHttI, How Ford Built America - The Man Behind The Automobile (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1IzetXHttI), Fords Combative Interaction with Labor Unions. The BBC reports that in 1509, he spent nearly a year's worth of tax revenue just to celebrate Christmas. The entire engine and transmission were enclosed; the four cylinders were cast in a solid block; the suspension used two semi-elliptic springs. The organization's net pay in 2022 was $47 million. The Smithsonian Institution has honored Ford for changing the aviation industry. Ford's most successful aircraft was the Ford 4AT Trimotor, often called the "Tin Goose" because of its corrugated metal construction. One of the most revered figures of American individualism and enterprise is Henry Ford. His River Rouge Plant became the world's largest industrial complex, pursuing vertical integration to such an extent that it could produce its own steel. His net worth was set to rise! [13] However, the automobiles produced were of a lower quality and higher price than Ford wanted. Henry Ford is to thank for the invention of the automobile. What's It Worth? We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. While these articles explicitly condemned pogroms and violence against Jews, they blamed the Jews themselves for provoking them. Between 1895 and 1896, Ford drove that machine about 1000 miles. Most wanted to restrict productivity as a means to foster employment, but Ford saw this as self-defeating because, in his view, productivity was necessary for economic prosperity to exist. Little choices become big fruitions. Not until the 1930s did Ford overcome his objection to finance companies, and the Ford-owned Universal Credit Corporation became a major car-financing operation. "Perspiring Capitalists: Latinos and the Henry Ford Service School, 19181928", Williams, Karel, Colin Haslam and John Williams, "Ford versus 'Fordism': The Beginning of Mass Production? Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. User Consent for the invention of the Ford 4AT Trimotor, often the... Set by GDPR cookie Consent plugin and transmission were enclosed ; the four cylinders were cast a... When he was 12 R & D work the deal on five.! 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