Henry Ford

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and the sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production.

Although Ford did not invent the automobile or the assembly line, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford. In doing so, Ford converted the automobile from an expensive curiosity into a practical conveyance that would profoundly impact the landscape of the twentieth century. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As the owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with "Fordism": mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation and arranged for his family to control the company permanently.

Henry Ford (illustrator)

Henry Chapman Ford (1828–1894) was an American illustrator. His depictions of California's missions were partially responsible for the revival of interest in the state's Spanish heritage.

Early life and education

Ford was born in Livonia, New York. He studied art in Paris and Florence late in the 1850s. During the Civil War, he was a soldier assigned to prepare illustrations of interest to the military. After the war, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, where, in 1871, his studio was destroyed in the "Great Fire".

Work in California

In 1875 he settled in Santa Barbara, California, where he would live out his days. Ford traveled by horse and buggy to each of the twenty-one Spanish missions in California, where he created a historically important portfolio of watercolors, oils, and etchings. His depictions of the missions were (in part) responsible for the revival of interest in the state's Spanish heritage, and indirectly for the restoration of the missions themselves. In 1883, Ford published his Etchings of the Franciscan Missions of California, and exhibited his works at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The hallmarks of Ford’s images are exquisite brushwork and tonal mastery in all mediums, which make his works highly prized. Ford died in 1894 in Santa Barbara.

Henry Ford (American football, born 1931)

Henry 'Model T' Ford (born November 1, 1931 in Homestead, Pennsylvania) is a former American football defensive back for the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL, drafted in 1955 by Cleveland. A quarterback at the University of Pittsburgh, Ford was the first African-American to play that position at a major college. After being drafted, he spent the 1955 season with the Browns and 1956-'57 with the Steelers. He was awarded the Pittsburgh Pro Football Hall of Fame's President's Award in 2015 for "displaying superior courage, integrity and professionalism beyond the playing field".

References

Henry Ford (American football)

Henry Ford (born October 30, 1971 in Fort Worth, Texas) is a former American football defensive tackle in the National Football League. Ford played most of his career for the Houston Oilers / Tennessee Oilers / Tennessee Titans, and played one year for the New Orleans Saints. Ford was drafted in the 1st round of the 1994 NFL Draft by the Oilers out of the University of Arkansas. In 1999, the Titans made it to Super Bowl XXXIV in which Ford appeared as a substitute, however they lost to the Kurt Warner-led St. Louis Rams.

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Henry Ford (professor)

Henry Ford (c.1753 – 26 July 1813) was an academic at the University of Oxford, who held the positions of Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic (1780–1813) and Principal of Magdalen Hall, Oxford (1788–1813).

Life and career

Henry Ford, from Cranbrook in Kent, joined the University of Oxford on 9 July 1776, at the age of 23, matriculating as a member of Pembroke College. He later became a member of Christ Church and obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1780. He was appointed Lord Almoner's Professor of Arabic straight after obtaining his degree. He was not the only candidate: William Jones, a lawyer and linguist, also applied. He had a reputation as a radical, and although Ford was "a comparative nonentity" (in the words of Jones's biographer), he had the advantage of having married the niece of a bishop, and so "nepotism and politics triumphed".

Ford obtained his Master of Arts degree in 1783. When Matthew Lamb, the Principal of Magdalen Hall, resigned in 1788, Ford was his successor. He obtained a doctorate in civil law in the same year: it was customary at the time for the heads of colleges and halls to have a doctoral degree. He then "retired as much as he could from the public view", wrote one historian of Hertford College (a successor institution to Magdalen Hall), adding that "it was his excessive shyness that gained for him a certain notoriety and a place among the early Oxford caricatures."

Henry Ford (secretary of state)

Sir Henry Ford (January 1617-1684), of Nutwell in Devon was four times MP for Tiverton between 1664 and 1685 and twice Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1669–70 and 1672-3.

Origins

Ford was the eldest son of Henry Ford (d.1616) of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, Devon by his wife Katharine Drake, daughter and sole heiress of George Drake of Spratshays in Littleham, Devon. His grandfather was Thomas Ford (1556-1610) of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, by his wife Elizabeth Popham (d.1629) of the Popham family of Huntworth in Somerset. Her monument exists in Ilsington Church. Thomas Ford's grandfather was John Ford (d.1538) of Ashburton (the son and heir of William Ford of Chagford,) who purchased the estate of Bagtor in the parish of Ilsington, which his male heirs successively made their seat. The Elizabethan mansion of the Fords survives today at Bagtor as the service wing of a later house appended in about 1700. Sir Henry Ford was a nephew of the dramatist John Ford (1586-c.1639)