Henry Ford II (September 4, 1917 – September 29, 1987), commonly known as "Hank the Deuce," was an American businessman in the automotive industry. He was the oldest son of Edsel Ford and oldest grandson of Henry Ford I. He served as president of the Ford Motor Company from 1945 to 1960, chief executive officer (CEO) from 1947 to 1979, and chairman of the board of directors from 1960 to 1980. Under his leadership, Ford Motor Company became a publicly traded corporation in 1956. From 1943 to 1950, he also served as president of the Ford Foundation.
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Early life
Henry Ford II was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Eleanor Clay Ford and Edsel Ford on September 4, 1917. He, along with his brothers Benson and William, and 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 left in 1940 before graduation. During this time, he became a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity.
His niece, Sheila Ford Hamp, William's daughter, is the current owner of the National Football League's Detroit Lions. His brother was principal owner from 1963 until his death in 2014. William's widow, Martha Firestone Ford, assumed control of the franchise until passing it to Sheila in 2020.
Career
When his father Edsel, president of Ford, died of cancer in May 1943 (during World War II), Henry Ford II was serving in the US Navy and unable immediately to inherit the presidency of the family-owned business. The elderly and ailing Henry Ford I, company founder, decided to re-assume the presidency, though mentally inconsistent, suspicious, and considered no longer fit for the presidency position by most of the company's directors. For the previous 20 years, although he had long been without any official executive title, the elder Ford had maintained 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 (equivalent to $230,000,000 in 2025). The administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt considered a government acquisition of the company to ensure continued war production, but the idea never progressed to execution.
Henry Ford II left the Navy in July 1943 and joined the company's management a few weeks later. He assumed presidency of the business on September 21, 1945. Since it had been assumed that Edsel Ford would continue in his capacity as president of the company for much longer than turned out to be the case, Henry Ford II had by then received little preparation for the position. He inherited the company during a chaotic period; its European factories had suffered a great deal of damage during the war, the company was losing money, and domestic sales were in decline.
Henry Ford II immediately adopted an aggressive management style. One of his first acts as company president was to place John Bugas in charge of company management, dismissing much of his grandfather's inner circle, especially Harry Bennett, chief of the Ford Service Department, whom the elder Ford had hired in 1921 to oversee security at the vast Ford Rouge Plant complex, and nearly two decades later had become a lightning rod in efforts to prevent unionization of the Ford labor force, by violent means if necessary. Next, acknowledging his inexperience, Henry II hired several seasoned executives to support him. He hired former General Motors executives Ernest Breech and Lewis Crusoe away from the Bendix Corporation. Breech was to serve in the coming years as the young Ford's business mentor, and the Breech–Crusoe team would form the core of Ford's business expertise, offering much-needed experience.
Additionally, Ford hired ten young up-and-comers, known as the "Whiz Kids". These ten, gleaned from an Army Air Forces statistical team, Ford envisioned as giving the company the ability to innovate and stay current. Two of them, Arjay Miller and Robert McNamara, went on to serve as presidents of Ford themselves. A third member, J. Edward Lundy, served in key financial roles for several decades and helped to establish Ford Finance's position as a major worldwide financial operation. As a team, the "Whiz Kids" are probably best remembered as the design team for the 1949 Ford, which they took from concept to production in 19 months, and which re-established Ford as a formidable automotive company. It was reported that 100,000 orders for this car were taken the day it was introduced to the market.
Awards and achievements
1969, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Lyndon B. Johnson
1983, inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame
Personal life
Henry Ford II was married three times:
Anne McDonnell (1919–1996), a daughter of James Francis McDonnell. They married in 1940 and divorced in 1964. The Fords had three children including Edsel Ford II
Maria Cristina Vettore (1929–2008), formerly wife of Robin Willoughby Merivale Austin, a Canadian in the British Royal Navy; she and Ford married in New York City in 1965 and divorced in 1976.
Kathleen DuRoss (born Kathleen Roberta King, 1940 – 2020), she and Ford were married in Carson City, Nevada, 1980. By this marriage, Ford had two stepdaughters.
Ford died of pneumonia in Detroit at Henry Ford Hospital on September 29, 1987, at age 70. After a private funeral service at Christ Church Grosse Pointe, his remains were cremated and the ashes scattered.
Legacy
The Henry Ford II World Center, the official title of the Ford World Headquarters in Dearborn, Michigan
The Henry Ford II Honors Program, the official honors program of Henry Ford College
Henry Ford II High School, in Sterling Heights, Michigan, is named for him
Filmography
The Ford 50th Anniversary Show (1953) – Broadcast live on CBS and NBC and called both "a landmark in television" and "a milestone in the cultural life of the '50s".
Thunderball (1965) – Extra at the Nassau Casino (uncredited)
In popular culture
Henry Ford II is portrayed by Tracy Letts in the 2019 film Ford v Ferrari (released under the title "Le Mans '66" in some parts of Europe).
He appears in a few scenes in the 2002 movie Monday Night Mayhem. Footage of him appears in the documentary television series The Cars that Built America.