The automotive, motorsports and pro football worlds are mourning the death of William Clay Ford, who passed away Sunday from pneumonia, according to a company statement.
Ford was 88 and the last surviving grandchild of the company’s founder, Henry Ford.
Ford spent 57 years with the 110-year-old company his grandfather built, most recently as Director Emeritus.
In a twist, he was elected to the company’s board of directors in 1948, a year before he graduated from Yale University and began actually working at Ford in 1949. He spent 32 years as chairman of Ford’s Design Committee, overseeing dozens of new car developments and oftentimes exotic concept cars.
He was credited with overseeing the development of a number of classic Ford vehicles, including the Continental Mark II, which many car enthusiasts consider among the most iconic vehicles ever manufactured.
He also championed Ford’s involvement in various forms of motorsports, including NASCAR, open-wheel racing, drag racing and other series both in the U.S. and internationally.
NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France issued this statement on the passing of Ford after Sunday’s Kobalt 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway: “On behalf of the France family and everyone at NASCAR, our thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Ford family on the passing of William Clay Ford Sr. He was a worthy successor not only to a great company but also a legacy – and he served both exceptionally well. The grandson of Henry Ford will be remembered as a man of style, for both the automobiles he built and the life he led. He was a giant … who forever will be missed.”
Ford became chairman of Ford’s Executive Committee in 1978, was elected vice chairman of the Board in 1980 and chairman of the Finance Committee in 1987. He retired from his post as vice chairman in 1989 and as chairman of the Finance Committee in 1995. He retired from the board and was named Director Emeritus on May 12, 2005.
He is survived by his wife of 66 years, Martha Firestone Ford; daughters Martha Ford Morse (Peter), Sheila Ford Hamp (Steven), and Elizabeth Ford Kontulis (Charles); son William Clay Ford, Jr. (Lisa); 14 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
William Clay Ford was named president of the Detroit Lions in 1961, purchased the team two years later for a reported $4.5 million (it’s now valued by Forbes at $900 million), and served as its chairman until his death.
“My father was a great business leader and humanitarian who dedicated his life to the company and the community,” William Clay Ford, Jr., executive chairman of Ford Motor Company, said in a statement released by the company. “He also was a wonderful family man, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather. He will be greatly missed by everyone who knew him, yet he will continue to inspire us all.”
DETROIT – He helped spearhead bringing the town a Super Bowl 17 years ago, but Roger Penske believes the reimagined Chevrolet Detroit GP is his greatest gift to the Motor City.
“It’s bigger than the Super Bowl from an impact within the city,” Penske told NBC Sports. “Maybe not with the sponsors and TV, but for the city of Detroit, it’s bigger than the Super Bowl.
“We’ve got to give back individually and collectively, and I think we as a company in Michigan and in Detroit, it’s something we know how to do. It shows we’re committed. Someone needs to take that flag and run it down through town. And that’s what we’re trying to do as a company. We’re trying to give back to the city.”
After 30 years of being run on Belle Isle, the race course has been moved to a new nine-turn, 1.7-mile downtown layout that will be the centerpiece of an event weekend that is designed to promote a festival and community atmosphere.
There will be concerts in the adjacent Hart Plaza. Local businesses from Detroit’s seven districts have been invited to hawk their wares to new clientele. Boys and Girls Clubs from the city have designed murals that will line the track’s walls with images of diversity, inclusion and what Detroit means through the eyes of youth.
And in the biggest show of altruism, more than half the circuit will be open for free admission. The track is building 4-foot viewing platforms that can hold 150 people for watching the long Jefferson Avenue straightaway and other sections of the track.
Detroit GP chairman Bud Denker, a longtime key lieutenant across Penske’s various companies, has overseen more than $20 million invested in infrastructure.
The race is essentially Penske’s love letter to the city where he made much of his fame as one of Detroit’s most famous automotive icons, both as a captain of industry with a global dealership network and as a racing magnate (who just won his record 19th Indy 500 with Josef Newgarden breaking through for his first victory on the Brickyard oval).
(Detroit Grand Prix)
During six decades in racing, Penske, 86, also has run many racetracks (most notably Indianapolis Motor Speedway but also speedways in Michigan, California and Pennsylvania), and much of that expertise has been applied in Detroit.
“And then the ability for us to reach out to our sponsor base, and then the business community, which Bud is tied in with the key executives in the city of Detroit, bringing them all together,” Penske said. “It makes a big difference.
“The Super Bowl is really about the people that fly in for the Super Bowl. It’s a big corporate event, and the tickets are expensive. And the TV is obviously the best in the world. What we’ve done is taken that same playbook but made it important to everyone in Detroit. Anyone that wants to can come to the race for free, can stand on a platform or they can buy a ticket and sit in the grandstands or be in a suite. It’s really multiple choice, but it is giving it to the city of Detroit. I think it’s important when you think of these big cities across the country today that are having a lot of these issues.”
The Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Michigan’s Demonie Johnson, 13, of Detroit climbs over a Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix wall adorned with his mural design for the race (Ryan Garza/USA TODAY Sports Images Network).Detroit Grand Prix chairman Bud Denker (Ryan Garza/USA Today Sports Images Network).
Denker said the Detroit Grand Prix is hoping for “an amazingly attended event” but is unsure of crowd estimates with much of the track offering free viewing.
The race easily could handle a crowd of at least 50,000 daily (which is what the Movement Music Festival draws in Hart Plaza) and probably tens of thousands more in a sprawling track footprint along the city’s riverwalk.
Penske is hoping for a larger crowd than Belle Isle, which was limited to about 30,000 fans daily because of off-site parking and restricted fan access at a track that was located in a public park.
The downtown course will have some unique features, including a “split” pit lane on an all-new concrete (part of $15 million spent on resurfaced roads, new barriers and catchfencing … as well as 252 manhole covers that were welded down).
The 80,000-square-foot hospitality chalet area that faces the split pit lane in which teams will pit on opposing sides (Detroit Grand Prix).
A $5 million, 80,000-square-foot hospitality chalet will be located adjacent to the paddock and pit area. The two-story structure, which was imported from the 16th hole of the Waste Management Open in Phoenix, will offer 70 chalets (up from 23 suites at Belle Isle last year). It was built by InProduction, the same company that installed the popular HyVee-branded grandstands and suites at Iowa Speedway last year.
Penske said the state, city, county and General Motors each owned parts of the track, and their cooperation was needed to move streetlights and in changing apexes of corners. Denker has spent the past 18 months meeting with city council members who represent Detroit’s seven districts, along with Mayor Mike Duggan. Penske said the local support could include an appearance by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Witmer.
Denker and Detroit GP president Michael Montri were inspired to move the Detroit course downtown after attending the inaugural Music City Grand Prix in Nashville, Tennessee.
Detroit Grand Prix chairman Bud Denker with Detroit citcy council president Mary Sheffield, police chief James White and mayor Mike Duggan at a news conference for the race (Dana Afana / USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
“We saw what an impact it made on that city in August of 2021 and we came back from there and said boy could it ever work to bring it downtown in Detroit again,” Denker said.
“We’ve really involved the whole community of Detroit, and the idea of bringing our city together is what the mayor and city council and our governor are so excited about. The dream we have is now coming to fruition.
“When you see the infrastructure downtown and the bridges over the roads we’ve built and the graphics, and everything is centered around the Renaissance Center as your backdrop, it’s just amazing.”
The Detroit Grand Prix track (David Rodriguez Munoz/USA TODAY Sports Images Network).
