Ford family (Michigan)

Ford family
Business family
Henry Ford
Henry Ford II
William Clay Ford Jr.
Current region
Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Founded
  • 1847
  • 179 years ago
FounderWilliam Ford
Current headWilliam Clay Ford Jr.
Members
Connected members
Connected families
    • Firestone
    • Niarchos
EstatesFair Lane
Edsel and Eleanor Ford House

The Ford family is an American family from the U.S. state of Michigan. They are best known for their control of the Ford Motor Company automobile manufacturer which was originally founded by Henry Ford in the early twentieth century. Henry's grandson William Clay Ford Sr. and his family have controlled the Detroit Lions franchise of the National Football League since 1964. The Ford family are also members of the Episcopal Church.

Although the Ford family's ownership stake in the automaker had declined to less than 50% of the company's equity as of 2010, the family retained operational control through a special class of stock that was established early in the company's history and retained when the company made its initial public offering in 1956. The family owns all of the company's Class B shares, which are collectively entitled to elect 40% of the company's board of directors, with the remaining 60% elected by the holders of the company's publicly traded common stock.

Family tree

William Ford
(1775–1818)		Rebecca Jennings
(1776–1851)
Samuel Ford
(1791–1842)		Jonathan Thomas Ford
(1799–1864)		Thomasina Smith
(1803–1847)		Robert Ford
(1803–1877)		George Ford
(1811–1863)		Henry Ford
(c. 1813–?)		Stephen Ford
(c. 1815–?)
Rebecca Ford [Flaherty]
(1824–1895)		William Ford
(1826–1905)		Mary Litogot
(1839–1876)		Jane Ford [Smith]
(1829–1851)		Mary Ford
(c. 1832–1882)		Nancy Ford [Flaherty]
(1834–1920)		Henry Ford
(1834–1901)		Samuel Ford
(1838–1884)
Henry Ford
(1863–1947)		Clara Jane Bryant
(1866–1950)		John Ford
(1865–1927)		Margaret Ford [Ruddiman]
(1867–1960)		Jane Ford
(1869–1906)		William Ford
(1871–1959)		Robert Ford
(1873–1877)
Edsel Bryant Ford
(1893–1943)		Eleanor Lowthian Clay
(1896–1976)
Henry Ford II
(1917–1987)		Anne McDonnell
(1919–1996)		Benson Ford Sr.
(1919–1978)		Edith McNaughton
(1920–1980)		Walter Buhl Ford II
(1920–1991)		Josephine Clay Ford
(1923–2005)		William Clay Ford Sr.
(1925–2014)		Martha Parke Firestone
(b. 1925)
Stavros Spyros Niarchos
(1909–1996)		Charlotte McDonnell Ford
(1941–2025)		Anne Ford
(b. 1943)		Edsel Bryant Ford II
(b. 1948)		Walter Buhl Ford III
(1943–2010)		Eleanor Clay Ford [Sullivan]
(b. 1946)		Josephine Clay Ford [Ingle]
(b. 1949)		Alfred Brush Ford
(b. 1950)
Elena Anne Ford-Niarchos
(b. 1966)		Benson Ford Jr.
(b. 1949)		Lynn Ford [Alandt]
(b. 1951)		Martha Parke Ford [Morse]
(b. 1948)		Sheila Firestone Ford [Hamp]
(b. 1951)		William Clay Ford Jr.
(b. 1957)		Elizabeth Hudson Ford [Kontulis]
(b. 1961)

Businesses

The following is a list of businesses in which the Ford family have held a controlling or otherwise significant interest.

References

  1. ↑ "Ford Officially Takes Over As Detroit Lions' Owner". The New York Times. United Press International. January 11, 1964. Archived from the original on March 14, 2023. Retrieved September 15, 2026.
  2. ↑ W. Williams, Peter (2016). Religion, Art, and Money: Episcopalians and American Culture from the Civil War to the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press. p. 176. ISBN 9781469626987. The names of fashionable families who were already Episcopalian, like the Morgans, or those, like the Fricks, who now became so, goes on interminably: Aldrich, Astor, Biddle, Booth, Brown, Du Pont, Firestone, Ford, Gardner, Mellon, Morgan, Procter, the Vanderbilt, Whitney. Episcopalians branches of the Baptist Rockefellers and Jewish Guggenheims even appeared on these family trees.
  3. ↑ Muller, Joann. "Ford Family's Stake Is Smaller, But They're Richer And Still Firmly In Control". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  4. ↑ Muller, Joann. "Ford Family Shuffles Wealth". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  5. ↑ Kennon, Joshua. "Examining the shareholder structure of an iconic American company". The Balance. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  6. ↑ Muller, Joann. "William Clay Ford's Legacy Cemented Family's Dynasty". Forbes. Retrieved 2020-01-14.

Further reading