Henry Ford II
| Henry Ford II | |
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Henry Ford II arrives in the Netherlands (1954).
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| Chief Executive Officer of the Ford Motor Company | |
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In office 1945–1979 |
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| Preceded by | Henry Ford |
| Succeeded by | Philip Caldwell |
| Personal details | |
| Born | September 4, 1917 Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Died | September 29, 1987 (aged 70) Detroit, Michigan, United States |
| Spouse(s) | Anne McDonnell, 1940–1964 (divorced) Maria Cristina Vettore, 1965–1980 (divorced) Kathleen DuRoss 1980–1987 (his death) |
| Relations |
Henry Ford (grandfather) William Clay Ford, Sr. (brother) Edsel Ford II (son) Bill Ford (nephew) Josephine Ford (sister) |
| Children | 5 (including Edsel Ford II) |
| Parents |
Edsel Ford Eleanor Clay Ford |
| Education |
Hotchkiss School (1936) Yale University |
| Occupation | Former Chairman and president and CEO of the Ford Motor Company |
Henry Ford II (September 4, 1917 – September 29, 1987), sometimes known as "HF2" or "Hank the Deuce", was the eldest son of Edsel Ford and eldest grandson of Henry Ford. He was president of the Ford Motor Company from 1945 to 1960, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman for several months thereafter. Notably, under the leadership of Henry Ford II, Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation in 1956. From 1943 to 1950, he also served as president of the Ford Foundation.
Henry Ford II was born in Detroit, Michigan to Eleanor Clay Ford and Edsel Ford on September 4, 1917. He and his brothers, Benson and William, and his sister Josephine, grew up amid affluence. He graduated from The Hotchkiss School in 1936. He attended Yale University, where he served on the business staff of The Yale Record, the campus humor magazine, but he left without graduating in 1940.
When his father Edsel, the president of Ford, died of cancer in May 1943 (during World War II), Henry Ford II was serving in the Navy, and was thus unable to take over the presidency of the family-owned business. The elderly and ailing Henry Ford, company founder, re-assumed the presidency. By this point in his life, the elder Ford was mentally inconsistent, suspicious, and no longer fit for the job; most of the directors did not want to see him as president. But for the previous 20 years, although he had long been without any official executive title, he had always had 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 had been considering a government takeover of the company in order to ensure continued war production, but the idea never progressed to execution.
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