Ford Motor Company: Understanding the history and legacy of automakers
From groundbreaking assembly line innovations to iconic cars like the Model T, Mustang and F-150, we explore the rich history of the Ford Motor Company.
- Ford Motor Co. will leave the Glass House world headquarters in 70 years from now for a new building a mile away.
- Executive Chair Billford says his memory is not connected to the building itself but to the people he worked with.
- Ford shared memories including a pivotal 2007 meeting with the UAW and a “baptism by fire” during early contract negotiations.
Bill Ford said it was emotional for him to be about a mile away for the new Ford World Headquarters, which will leave the World HQ of Ford Motor Company on Michigan Avenue.
“It’s been our headquarters for 70 years,” Ford said. The company moved to a glass house in 1956.
Ford, the company’s executive chair and CEO from 2001 to 2006, said he has no feelings for the building. Rather, he has the feelings and memories of all experiences with those who have worked with him for 50 years in the building.
“When I think about the World HQ, I don’t think about buildings. I think about who I interacted with there and what I had relationships with people there,” Ford said. “I had so many great things. Even the women who worked in the dining room, the cleaners, they were all wonderful people and I remember them all.”
The company will move people to its new headquarters on Oakwood Boulevard and Village Road this fall.
Ford plans to oust most employees from Glasshouse by the second quarter of 2026. The company then slowly overturned the glass house over the next 18 months, most of which were gone by the end of 2027 or mid-2028. The company is working with the city of Dearborn to come up with ways to make green spaces into parks or other community areas, but Ford continues to own the property.
Bill Ford said he remembered “Zilion” when he saw the building. He began working there underground and he said he remembers once the ceiling fell on him. Or, remembering that no one was looking at him, he was trying to find a way to sneak out of the glass house, saying, “The service elevator has become a great friend of mine.
He sat down with a small group of reporters to share his most powerful and personal memories of his time, working in the glass house.
“I might have heard the pin drop.”
Around 2007, at the start of the Great Recession, Ford said that then-UAW president Ron Goettelsinger had called him asking if he could speak to the company’s board of directors.
“What on earth did you think it was?” Can Ron give me a little hint? ” he said, “No, that’s fine,” Ford said.
So Ford agreed to come and talk to him. He told the board that Gettelfinger was coming, but he didn’t know why.
“Well, it was great. Ron went in and said, “Bill asked if I could help the company. I said to my balance sheet and I want you to know, I love this company, I love this industry, I love this industry, yeah, I would do that and I would do it.” “We could have heard the pindrop at that meeting.”
The three automakers in UAW and Detroit attacked a groundbreaking deal that year, when the union created a trust known as the Vebas (Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association), which put the burden of pensioners’ healthcare coverage that had cost billions of dollars on a multi-billion-dollar company.
Ford said he didn’t know GetTelfinger when most directors started talking to them, but it was “a powerful moment that I always remember. It was a really important moment for me, and for the company.”
Remember: “I won’t exchange anything…”
Ford is a friendship that Ford said he would stick to him, including his time spent with Roberto Goizueta, former CEO of Coca-Cola and director of Ford’s board of directors.
“He was an incredible leader to me and I was at the world headquarters for all my time with Roberto,” Ford said.
He recalled another powerful memory from 1982 when Ford negotiated with the UAW for a new union contract. “I was a pretty young man from the company and didn’t know what I was doing,” Bill Ford said.
One of his first meetings during the UAW negotiation session took place in a large conference room with a long table with around 30 people on either side of it. Afterwards, Ford, a junior member of the team, sat on the wall in the back.
One of the UAW negotiators, “old, old man,” stood up and pointed directly to Ford.
“I’m like, ‘Oh, what a god’s.’ He said, “What are you made of?” “Ford said. “At that point, I’m looking for a place to hide. I said, “I don’t know what you mean,” he said, “I knew your great grandfather, I knew your grandfather, I knew your uncle, and I knew what they were made of.” “
Ford’s great grandfather is Henry Ford. His grandfather was Edsel Ford and his uncle was Henry Ford II.
“I thought, ‘Oh, boy.’ I stood up and said, “You’re lucky more than me because I didn’t know my grandfather or great grandfather, but I know what they were doing.
Finger pointing and questions by Bill Ford’s UAW negotiators lasted a week, he said. Then one night he was walking down the hallway inside a glass house and said, “I saw four of these guys coming to me, and I was looking for a boys room to jump in, and they said, “Hey, what are you doing? Do you want a beer?” I looked around looking at who they were talking to, and I said, “Me?” They said, “Yeah, you passed the test, you were amazing.”
Ford joined the men for a beer at a nearby Miller’s bar, and they all became great friends, he said.
“I remember that,” Ford said. “It was an interesting baptism by fire at World HQ and I didn’t trade anything.”
Jamie L. Larrow is a senior Autos writer covering Ford Motor Company for the Detroit Free Press. Please contact Jamie at jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @Jarouan. Sign up for our car newsletter. Become a subscriber.
