Mustang loses a huge family member with death of William Clay Ford
Although he is most well known in recent years as the owner of the Detroit Lions, the 88-year-old Ford, who died March 9, was also the last surviving grandchild of the company’s founder, Henry Ford.
Named Director Emeritus in 2005, William Clay Ford is heavily credited with helping to steer Ford Motor Company into the modern era as an employee, director and influential member of the Ford family.
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He began serving the company in a leadership capacity in 1948 when he was elected to the Board of Directors. The Yale University graduate was elected chairman of the Design Committee in 1957, a post he held for 32 years, according to an official Ford press release.
In 1978, Mr. Ford was elected chairman of the Executive Committee and appointed a member of the Office of the Chief Executive. He was elected vice chairman of the Board in 1980 and chairman of the Finance Committee in 1987. He retired from his post as vice chairman in 1989 and as chairman of the Finance Committee in 1995. The last surviving grandson of Henry Ford retired from the board in 2005.
In recent years, Mr. Ford didn’t have much involvement in the operations of Ford Motor Co. He was a strong reminder of the spirit of American pride started by his grandfather some 110 years ago in the auto industry, which has remained an important part of the DNA of the Mustang during the 50-year history of the car.
In fact, it could be argued that while William Clay Ford never really had a direct hand in the Mustang, he has been as much a part of preserving the legacy of the car as anyone else at the company over the past five decades.
For one, he is heavily credited with helping to bring Ford Motor Co. back under his family’s control in 2001, when the directors pushed out Ford’s former CEO Jacques Nasser so that William Clay Ford Jr. could play a more prominent role in the company.
If it were not for that, who knows what would have happened to the Mustang. Under different leadership, the car could have met the same fate as the Camaro when production of the Chevy car was halted in 2001 because of declining sales in the pony car segment.
Over the years, Bill Ford Jr. has remained a huge advocate for the Mustang even during some of the cars more troubling times, ideas which likely stemmed from some conversations he had with his dad behind closed doors.
That passion rings clear when Bill Ford Jr. talks about the new 2015 Mustang.
“This is one product that I’ve been following every step of the way,” said Bill Ford Jr., leading up to the debut of the new 2015 Mustang. “This to me is the most important product we have, at least to me personally.”
It’s those very sentiments that I can only imagine William Clay Ford shared as well as the last surviving grandchild of Henry Ford, which speaks to why he’ll be sorely missed by Mustang and Ford fans alike around the world.