Henry Ford

On August 26, 2009, HENRY FORD DAVIS, SR.; devoted husband of Mildred Ann Davis. Friends may visit the FAMILY OWNED MARCH FUNERAL HOME WEST, INC., 4300 Wabash Avenue, on Tuesday after 8:30 AM. The family will receive friends on Wednesday at the City Temple of Baltimore Baptist Church, 317 Dolphin Street, at 10 AM followed by funeral service at 10:30 AM.

M aryland is poised to become the first state in the country to recognize a kind of company that would be authorized to devote significant profits to society, the environment and other causes that have nothing to do with its shareholders' wallets. I don't know whether the idea of "benefit corporations" will take off. The record of old-fashioned, greedy corporations in raising everyone's living standards has been pretty impressive over the past three centuries. But look no further than the past two years of recession to see the deep flaws of traditional capitalism.

Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate, by Neil Baldwin. Public Affairs. 416 pages. $27.50. Neil Baldwin's Henry Ford and the Jews is a crisp account of Henry Ford's utterly crazy belief in a Jewish conspiracy to take over the world. Other than those with a special interest in the details of Ford's mania, however, readers looking for a compelling history of ideas or perhaps just a useful moral may be disappointed. As told by Baldwin, Ford's story casts only a little light on the fleeting history of anti-Semitism in America and offers no insight into why and where truly murderous anti-Semitism continues to flourish today, albeit in other parts of the world.

On August 26, 2009, HENRY FORD DAVIS, SR.; devoted husband of Mildred Ann Davis. Friends may visit the FAMILY OWNED MARCH FUNERAL HOME WEST, INC., 4300 Wabash Avenue, on Tuesday after 8:30 AM. The family will receive friends on Wednesday at the City Temple of Baltimore Baptist Church, 317 Dolphin Street, at 10 AM followed by funeral service at 10:30 AM.

IF YOU WANT the societal revolution once promised by the dot-com visionaries to come to pass, refuse to buy a new computer. Stand pat on your single-gigahertz model and scream - as a technological harbinger of another generation said in the movie Network - "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." In other words, make the promise of technology come true by slamming on your brakes in the fast lane of the information superhighway. Ironic, isn't it? But consider this: Would television have had the impact it did if 45 years ago your Mom had turned on the set and, about every two years, found out it no longer picked up I Love Lucy?

The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century By Steven Watts Henry Ford set off the consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to the masses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted by consumerism. He believed in giving his workers a living wage, though he was entirely opposed to union labor. He had a warm and loving relationship with his wife but sired a son with another woman. A rabid anti-Semite, he embraced African-American workers in the era of Jim Crow.

Josephine Clay Ford, 81, a leading philanthropist and the only granddaughter of automotive pioneer Henry Ford, died yesterday at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. At her death, Mrs. Ford owned more than 13 million shares of Ford Motor stock -- about 18 percent of the stock held exclusively by family members. In 2001, Time magazine estimated her fortune at $416 million. The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Josephine Ford Cancer Center and the College for Creative Studies, an art and design college in Detroit, were among recipients of millions from "Dody" Ford and the foundation she established with her late husband, Walter Buhl Ford II. The coincidentally named Mr. Ford, a noted interior and industrial designer, began his career with rival General Motors Corp.

Several weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. announced that it was terminating its 104-year relationship with Bridgestone/Firestone Inc. in the wake of last year's recall of 6.5 million tires that were standard equipment on Ford's Explorer sport-utility vehicles. The company's relationship with the tire maker dates to 1897, when founder Henry Ford purchased a set of tires for his first automobile from Harvey S. Firestone. In 1906, Ford's purchase of 2,000 sets of Firestone tires at $55 a set was at the time the single largest contract for tires in the world.

BIOGRAPHY THE PEOPLE'S TYCOON: HENRY FORD AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY By Steven Watts. Alfred A. Knopf. 608 pages. Henry Ford's brain ran almost entirely on instinct and image. If he had a good hunch about something and could easily picture it, he was unstoppable, devising not only such wonders as the Model T, but also the assembly-line process that made its mass production possible. But he could be downright dangerous on the rare occasions when an abstract concept unrelated to his work found its way into his head.

Bill Parcells, former coach of the New York Giants, has entered into discussions with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers about taking over the coaching job there, according to a published report quickly denied by the team's owner yesterday.The Orlando Sentinel quoted undisclosed sources yesterday saying that Parcells wants to give up his television commentator's job and return to coaching next year with the Bucs.Tampa Bay owner Hugh Culverhouse yesterday emphatically denied he or his representatives were interviewing Parcells.

This weekend, all eyes are on Detroit, or at least on Ford Field, where the NCAA men's basketball championship is being played. But athletics are just part of the excitement of Motor City. Here are five other things to see: 1 Motown Historical Museum : The museum is home of the world-famous Studio A, which Berry Gordy Jr. called Hitsville, U.S.A. This is where the Temptations, Marvin Gaye and other artists recorded some of their best work. The museum features historical photographs, artwork, music, costumes and the original recording studio.

Henry J. Ford, a certified public accountant and longtime Ellicott City resident, died Saturday of complications from a liver transplant at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 48. Mr. Ford was born in Baltimore and raised in Reisterstown, where he graduated from Franklin High School in 1979. He earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from what is now Frostburg State University in 1987, and for the past 19 years had been an auditor for the Defense Contract Audit Agency in Columbia. Mr. Ford was a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, the comprehensive transplant center patient committee at Johns Hopkins Hospital and committee member of Boy Scout Troop 615. Mr. Ford was a Ravens and Colts fan, and also enjoyed raising border collies and shelties.

The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century By Steven Watts Henry Ford set off the consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to the masses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted by consumerism. He believed in giving his workers a living wage, though he was entirely opposed to union labor. He had a warm and loving relationship with his wife but sired a son with another woman. A rabid anti-Semite, he embraced African-American workers in the era of Jim Crow.

I've always marveled at family businesses. After all, many families can't agree on who merits a drumstick at Thanksgiving. The reading of a patriarch's will can prompt dueling lawsuits. No surprise The summer after high school I worked in the warehouse of a large family-owned catalog company. The sons left at noon for the golf course and the aging founder unfortunately had deteriorated to the point where he could barely remember their names. It came as no surprise to me that the catalog company later failed.

Moving to speed and possibly expand its plan to slash 30,000 jobs from its manufacturing payroll, Ford Motor Co. will offer retirement incentives and buyout packages of as much as $140,000 to all employees at its U.S. factories. More than 75,000 blue-collar workers are eligible for the programs, disclosed yesterday by the United Auto Workers union and acknowledged by Ford. In all, Ford has about 110,000 employees in the United States. The offer is similar to a retirement and buyout plan offered this year by General Motors Corp.

BIOGRAPHY THE PEOPLE'S TYCOON: HENRY FORD AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY By Steven Watts. Alfred A. Knopf. 608 pages. Henry Ford's brain ran almost entirely on instinct and image. If he had a good hunch about something and could easily picture it, he was unstoppable, devising not only such wonders as the Model T, but also the assembly-line process that made its mass production possible. But he could be downright dangerous on the rare occasions when an abstract concept unrelated to his work found its way into his head.

WASHINGTON -- December will usher in a quiet milestone in American life: Some 52 million homes -- half of all U.S. households -- will have at least one personal computer.Low prices and a desire to be linked to the Internet drove nearly 4 million buyers to purchase their first PCs in the first half of 1998, a newly released market survey by ZD Market Intelligence shows.That torrid pace has held up, even ahead of the Christmas buying season, industry analysts report. It's likely that 1998 will see more than 8 million new PC users -- nearly double the 4.9 million first-time buyers in 1997.

DETROIT - Former Chrysler Chairman and CEO Lee Iacocca is returning as a pitchman for the automaker, which is even bringing back his old tagline: "If you can find a better car, buy it." The 81-year-old retired auto executive, who led Chrysler Corp.'s comeback from near-bankruptcy in the early 1980s, will star in a $75 million campaign to tout Chrysler's "Employee Pricing Plus," a response to GM's popular "Employee Discount for Everyone" program. The program allows consumers to buy many 2005 Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep models at the same prices that employees pay. The Iacocca ad campaign was to be announced yesterday.

Josephine Clay Ford, 81, a leading philanthropist and the only granddaughter of automotive pioneer Henry Ford, died yesterday at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. At her death, Mrs. Ford owned more than 13 million shares of Ford Motor stock -- about 18 percent of the stock held exclusively by family members. In 2001, Time magazine estimated her fortune at $416 million. The Detroit Institute of Arts, the Josephine Ford Cancer Center and the College for Creative Studies, an art and design college in Detroit, were among recipients of millions from "Dody" Ford and the foundation she established with her late husband, Walter Buhl Ford II. The coincidentally named Mr. Ford, a noted interior and industrial designer, began his career with rival General Motors Corp.