Ford Richardson Bryan (May 13, 1912 – May 14, 2004) was a member of the
Ford family
The family of Henry Ford is an American family from the U.S. state of Michigan, best known for their control of the Ford Motor Company automobile manufacturer, which was founded by Henry Ford in the early-twentieth century. Henry's grandson Willi ...
of
Dearborn Dearborn may refer to:
People
* Dearborn (surname)
** Henry Dearborn (1751–1829), U.S. Secretary of War under President Thomas Jefferson, Senior Officer of the U.S. Army during the War of 1812
Places in the United States Forts
* Fort Dearborn, ...
, who provided authentic historical information about the Ford family based almost entirely the
Ford Archives of
Henry Ford Museum and associated Greenfield Village.
Born in
Crystal, Michigan
Crystal is a census-designated place (CDP) comprising the main community in Crystal Township, Montcalm County, Michigan, United States. The CDP includes the village proper of Crystal, at the east end of Crystal Lake, as well as all of the land s ...
, Bryan graduated from
Eastern Michigan University in 1934; he then received his master's degree from
University of Michigan in 1941. From family
bibles, family legend, correspondence, and the historical archives of Dearborn, he traced the family history from England to Ireland, then to America, and in 1832 to the wilderness of the Michigan Territory, much of which was included in his book ''The Fords of Dearborn'' () includes genealogical tables and more than 125 illustrations depicting family members, their farms, homes, and their relationships. Bryan joined
Ford Motor Company as a
spectrochemical analyst following
World War II. Over the course of thirty-three years, he would move on to the
Ford Scientific Laboratory, publishing more than seventy technical papers on optical spectroscopy. Following his retirement from Ford, he became a volunteer at the
Henry Ford Museum & Greenfield Village. His yen for writing led him to the Ford Archives, where he found a
gold mine of material about his own family and about his favorite subject,
Henry Ford.
Benson Ford Research Center-Ford Richardson Bryan papers
/ref>
Works
Bryan wrote many books about Henry Ford including:
* ''Rouge: Pictured in Its Prime''
* ''Friends, Families & Forays''
* ''Clara: Mrs. Henry Ford''
* ''Beyond the Model T: The Other Ventures of Henry Ford''
* ''Henry's Attic: Some Fascinating Gifts to Henry Ford and His Museum''
* ''Henry's Lieutenants''
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Ford R.
1912 births
2004 deaths
People from Montcalm County, Michigan
Eastern Michigan University alumni
University of Michigan alumni
Writers from Michigan
20th-century American chemists
Henry Ford family