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A few of the more famous figures who have made their mark on Ford history

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Detroit Free Press

THE FOLKS FROM FORD:

HENRY FORD: Fortune magazine named him Man of the Century in 2000, but to this day, no one has figured him out. A mechanical genius and instinctive entrepreneur, Ford had weaknesses and contradictions. In the words of David Lewis, a University of Michigan business history professor and Ford expert: "Henry Ford was paradoxical. He was an idealistic pioneer in some respects, a cynical reactionary in others. He had a selfish, mean, even cruel streak, yet often was generous, kindly and compassionate. He was ignorant, narrow-minded, and stubborn, yet at times displayed remarkable insight, vision. 'History,' he proclaimed, 'is more or less bunk.' Yet he went on to build the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village, two of our country's greatest depositories of Americana." The museum is now called the Henry Ford.

JAMES COUZENS: The yin to Ford's yang, Couzens, as company treasurer, kept the fledgling Ford Motor Co. from falling apart in 1903 and beyond. With a brilliant mind for business, Couzens was cold and unlikable, and he didn't seem to care. He cared about profits and results, and his organizational prowess got them, overpowering Ford's entrepreneurial penchant to tinker and perfect his way into bankruptcy. Couzens, later a U.S. senator, stood up to Ford, a quality less visible in subsequent Ford executives.

EDSEL FORD: Henry's only son was tragic, progressive and, as one Ford author noted, forever overshadowed in history by his corporate icon father and his dynamic, devil-may-care son, Henry Ford II. Edsel never had a chance to really lead Ford Motor Co., but sadly, kept trying. He made solid contributions despite his father's best efforts to undermine him. Edsel, president at least in name, starting in 1919, is credited with moving Ford beyond the Model T, which his father clung to beyond its time while competitors flourished; partnering with his mother to force Henry to accept the first UAW contract in 1941; pursuing aviation, and commissioning, against popular, anticommunist hysteria, the now-famous Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts. Edsel Ford died of stomach cancer at 49, four years before his father's death at 83, and is to this day the forgotten Ford.

ELEANOR CLAY FORD: With a passionate appreciation for arts and charitable activities, Eleanor Clay was the perfect match for Edsel. The couple married in 1916, had four children -- Henry II, Benson, Josephine and William -- and supported many organizations, notably the Detroit Institute of Arts, Henry Ford Hospital and the Ford Foundation. Eleanor was no shrinking violet. When Edsel died in 1943, she did not hesitate to tell her famous father-in-law that his harsh treatment of Edsel helped kill him. She later fought to keep family members on the Ford board of directors, serving there herself for a time. In 1945, she helped ensure that her young son, Henry II, become company president, forcing an ill, elderly but initially reluctant Henry Ford to acquiesce. "I shall sell my stock!" she announced when Ford hedged. Before her death at age 80 in 1976, she transferred her graceful home on Gaukler Point to a trust with the request that it be used to benefit the public.

WILLIAM CLAY FORD JR.: Young, handsome and, like his uncle, cavalier enough to stage a corporate coup to become the CEO as well as chairman in 2001, Bill Ford is the kinder, greener Ford, at least publicly, as he tries to steer his company from a Rouge mentality to a new-millennium marketplace of ideas and practices. Wielding great power, he also has a certain charm. Is it real, or is it the great-grandfather paradox gene? Time will tell. But then again, this is a Ford, and maybe it won't.

JACQUES NASSER: Nasser spent 33 years of his life at Ford, rising to CEO in 1999, only to end up in a ditch two years later with a reputation as one of Ford's bad guys. With an aggressive, unilateral management style, he acquired Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, and spent millions on ill-advised Internet investments. He was a stringent cost-cutter who earned the nickname Jac the Knife. He alienated employees, suppliers, dealers and, finally, the board. That led to an unorthodox power-sharing setup with Bill Ford Jr. The Ford-Firestone divorce over rollover accidents involving faulty tires didn't help. Nasser was ousted in October 2001 amid plummeting profits, declining quality and market share.

HARRY BENNETT: An ex-sailor with little going for him until he met Ford, Bennett was short and fearless -- loyal as a dog to Henry Ford and mean as a snake to just about everyone else. After a chance meeting in 1915, Ford hired Bennett as a security man for his sprawling, increasingly volatile Rouge plant. But Bennett grew in power as Ford grew older and more cynical. By the 1930s, Bennett commanded 3,000 Service Department members. Employees called them thugs, goons and spies. Bennett's boys beat up Walter Reuther and his fellow unionists at the famous 1937 Battle of the Overpass. Bennett fired employees for attending union meetings and tried to incite race riots during the 1941 strike. He schmoozed some union leaders into selling their souls. The union won anyway. Bennett, wrote Ford Bryan in "Henry's Lieutenants," played "the role of villain in the Ford-directed super-drama. Bennett had close associates who were gentlemen and close associates who were crooks."

HENRY FORD II: A corporate swashbuckler, Henry II, later known as the Deuce, was just what the doctor ordered in 1945. Just 28 years old and a mediocre, party-hard college student at best, Henry nevertheless had the chutzpah not only to accept a gargantuan corporate challenge, but also to fire Harry Bennett. He would be famous later for firing all kinds of people. Henry II, who married three times, also is credited with reinforcing and greatly expanding Ford's overseas operation, positioning the company for the coming global marketplace. He also spearheaded the Renaissance Center project in downtown Detroit.

LEE IACOCCA: Cigar-smoking Iacocca symbolizes the roller-coaster ride of auto executives. He gained fame in 1964 by creating the Mustang, the first car aimed at the youth market, and rose to be Ford's president in 1970, only to be fired eight years later. He promptly skated over to almost-broke Chrysler, wrangled an unprecedented bailout from Uncle Sam, then engineered the company's comeback, making enough to pay off the loan three years later. He also was the first chief executive officer to film commercials, and wrote a best-selling, plainspoken autobiography.

ROBERT McNAMARA: Robert McNamara was one of 10 bright, college-educated men hired in the late 1940s by Henry Ford II. Eventually known as the Whiz Kids, these men were educated at such institutions as Princeton, Harvard and the University of California. Ford hired them, McNamara said, because at the time there were, among 1,000 top Ford executives, only a handful of college graduates. The Whiz Kids reported to Ford, who ordered them to "take a fresh look at the company and advise him accordingly." The group helped Ford rescue the company, then hemorrhaging badly and in such disarray, accountants couldn't even prepare a certified statement. A distinguished veteran who had served with distinction in World War II, McNamara eventually became Ford's president in 1960. Months later, he became President John F. Kennedy's secretary of defense and a main architect of the Vietnam War.

ALLAN GILMOUR: Currently Ford's vice chairman and chief financial officer, Gilmour started with the company in 1960 and was a contender for CEO in the early 1990s, losing out to Alex Trotman. Afterward, he stayed at Ford but came out of the closet, becoming the auto industry's first high-profile gay executive. He retired in 1994 and became an active fund-raiser for gay causes. He was lured out of retirement in 2002 by Bill Ford Jr. to shore up finances and trust in the company.

WALTER REUTHER: A true American labor hero, Walter Reuther was a primary architect of the United Auto Workers, credited as one of the most sophisticated, powerful and corruption-free unions in America. The early UAW saw its biggest victory when it unionized Ford in 1941 after a bitter strike. Reuther had worked at Ford for a short time. He was a socialist, like many union members, and for a time worked in a Soviet auto plant in the 1930s before coming back to Detroit, where he went to high school. Reuther paid dearly for his beliefs: He was one of several union organizers beaten by Ford Service Department men at the famous Battle of the Overpass at the Rouge plant in 1937, and he was critically injured in 1948 when an unknown gunman shot him through his kitchen window. A devoted family man, Reuther died in a small-plane crash in 1970.

ROSIE THE RIVETER: There was Rosie, the poster woman for females joining the workforce during World War II, and there was the real Rosie, Rose Will Monroe. She was a riveter, building B24 bombers at the Willow Run plant near Ypsilanti, when officials asked her to star in a promotional film about the war effort. She became a patriotic icon, synonymous with thousands of women who took defense-industry jobs, working factory positions usually held by men. Monroe left Michigan after the war, drove a taxi, operated a beauty shop and started her own home construction firm in Indiana called Rose Builders. She died in 1997.

BUDDY BATTLE: Robert Battle III, known as Buddy, was a tenacious trailblazer in the movement to involve more African Americans in unions and politics. He worked at the Rouge foundry as a young man when most blacks were relegated to the brutal job. After the 1941 UAW strike that unionized Ford, Battle became a member and championed black leaders in the union. He helped form the UAW's Trade Union Leadership Council, of which he served as president, to give blacks more of a voice, and he helped engineer endorsements of Jerome Cavanagh for Detroit mayor in 1961 and Coleman Young in the early 1970s. He eventually worked for Young after retiring from the union. Tireless and cheerful, he was popular with working people throughout his career.
 
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