(1863-1947), automobile manufacturer. Ford built his first car in 1896 and formed the Ford Motor Company in 1903. By 1909 he had worked out a system for mass producing the Model T using the assembly line and standardized parts. His production techniques drastically reduced the price of cars, and this, coupled with his decision in 1914 to pay his workers five dollars a day at a time when wages averaged eleven dollars a week, brought the purchase of a car within reach of average wage earners. Thus, he, more than any other single person, revolutionized transportation. By 1929 Ford was one of the largest manufacturers of cars in the world. Politically active, Ford opposed U.S. intervention in both world wars and ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 1918. In 1936 he and his son Edsel established the Ford Foundation, which makes substantial grants to schools and colleges. Offsetting his mechanical genius were his anti-Semitism and his violent opposition to unions. As he aged, he became increasingly autocratic, refusing to make necessary changes in his company to arrest its precipitous decline. His family finally prevailed upon him to turn the company over to his grandson, Henry Ford II, two years before his death.
