System Mechanic - Clean, repair, protect, and speed up your PC!Edsel Ford, Owner-Ford Motor Company
Born in 1893, Edsel Bryant Ford was the only son of Ford Motor Company founder, Henry Ford. During his early childhood, Edsel and his father worked side by side on cars. Later on, Edsel became more fascinated by the shapes of automobiles than by their inner workings. As a teenager, he built several speedsters, mostly T-based.
In 1919, when Edsel was twenty-five years of age, he succeeded his father, Henry, to become President of Ford. Most accounts suggest that this was mainly in name only, as Henry had no intention of relinquishing control of the Company. As President of Ford, Edsel made very few major decisions, though he was responsible for many good things in the Company's history. Edsel became the guiding light behind Ford's styling section, creating a more modern and marketable product, a reliable and safer product. Edsel insisted on fair and courteous relationships with dealers and the public. There was also his little-known achievement in making Ford Overseas a strong segment in the Ford marketing empire. He did all the essential things that Henry refused to do, and consequently held the Company together during several crisis periods in the 1930's. In true retrospect, he seems less a tragic figure than popularly supposed. Without him, the Company might never have attained the solid image it was today.
In the late '20's, Edsel guided the styling of the Model A, and gave it the mini-Lincoln look. It was Edsel who influenced his father to take over the bankrupt Lincoln Motor Company, saving one great car from the fate of so many others during the '30's. The Lincoln became Edsel's crowning achievement. But he also saw the Zephyr and most other pre-war Fords through their various stages of body design. In the end, it was Edsel who persuaded the old man to replace the Model "T", to mechanize his windshield wipers, to adopt - finally - hydraulic brakes, to engage in some semblance of long range planning and to make peace with organized labour.
There was more to Edsel then what the public saw. Edsel was the kind of parent who always was there, sharing the joys and problems of his and wife Eleanor’s three sons. For years Edsel Ford was one of the largest donors to the Detroit Community Fund. A talented landscape artist in his own right, Edsel served for many years as President of the Detroit Arts Commission. Edsel had other hobbies, like photography, fast boats, painting and sports, but cars remained his lifelong favourite.
Unfortunately, the pressures of running the Ford Motor Company, an over-demanding father, and America's entry into the Second World War would begin to take its toll on Edsel. Frustration and suppressed rage Edsel fell victim to ulcers. In time, the ulcers led. Early in 1942, he underwent abdominal surgery. Ten months later, he was hospitalized again, this time for Undulant Fever. But the doctors found something far worse than undulant fever, as bad as that was. Edsel's ulcers had become cancerous, and his condition was deemed inoperable. He was sent home to die. But early in the morning of May 26th, 1943, death came for Edsel Ford. He was only 49. Henry Ford was grief stricken at Edsel's death. Less than four years after Edsel's death, the old man himself was gone.
Ironically, the car built to honour Edsel turned out to be a dismal flop.
