Josephine Clay "Dody" Ford (July 7, 1923 – June 1, 2005) was an American philanthropist and the only granddaughter of

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that mi ...

Early life

Josephine was born in

Dearborn, Michigan Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. Dearborn is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States pe ...

on July 7, 1923. She was the only daughter and third of four children born to

Edsel Ford Edsel Bryant Ford (November 6, 1893 – May 26, 1943) was an American business executive and philanthropist who was the son of pioneering industrialist Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Jane Bryant Ford. He was the president of Ford Motor Company f ...

and his wife Eleanor Lowthian (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Clay) Ford. Her siblings included

Henry Ford II Henry Ford II (September 4, 1917 – September 29, 1987), sometimes known as "Hank the Deuce", was an American businessman in the automotive industry. He was the oldest son of Edsel Ford I and oldest grandson of Henry Ford I. He was president ...

, who also served as chairman and CEO of

Ford Motors Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobile ...

, and

William Clay Ford Sr. William Clay Ford Sr. (March 14, 1925 – March 9, 2014) was an American businessman who served on the boards of Ford Motor Company and the Edison Institute. Ford owned the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He was the you ...

Her father was the only child of

, founder of Ford Motors.

Personal life

Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin (1888) van Gogh DIA

In 1943, she married Walter Buhl Ford II (1920–1991), not a relative, whose family were prominent in the chemical business in the downriver suburbs of Detroit. He was a descendant of the other prominent families of Detroit including the banking Fords, the Buhl family and Brush family. Walter Ford was himself involved in interior and industrial design and was the chairman and chief executive of Ford & Earl Design Associates. They lived in

Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Grosse Pointe Farms is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 9,479 at the 2010 census. As part of the Grosse Pointe collection of cities, it is a northeastern city of Metro Detroit and shares a small wester ...

and together were the parents of two sons and two daughters: * Walter Buhl Ford III (1943–2010) * Eleanor Clay "Nonie" Ford Sullivan (b. 1946), who was married to Frederic Avery Bourke Jr. in 1967. Bourke is a part owner of

Dooney & Bourke Dooney & Bourke is an American fashion company founded in 1975 by designer Peter Dooney and entrepreneur Frederic Bourke in Norwalk, Connecticut. Originally a men's supplier of belts, suspenders, and ties, the company now specializes in handbags ...

, the leather company. They divorced and she remarried, to John Sullivan Jr., and lives at

960 Fifth Avenue 960 Fifth Avenue, also known as 3 East 77th Street, is a luxury apartment building on Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner of East 77th Street in Manhattan, New York. History 960 Fifth Avenue was built on the former site of the William A. Cla ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. * Josephine Clay "Joey" Ford Ingle (b. 1949), who married John William Ingle Jr. in 1971. * Alfred Brush Ford (b. 1950), who joined the

Hare Krishna Hare Krishna may refer to: * International Society for Krishna Consciousness The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), known Colloquialism, colloquially as the Hare Krishna movement or Hare Krishnas, is a Gaudiya Vaishnav ...

movement and renamed himself Ambarish Das. Dody and her husband were also art collectors and owned paintings by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2 ...

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially feminine sensuality, it has been said that "R ...

and

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

. Walter died in 1991 of

pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of t ...

. Dody died on June 1, 2005 at the

Henry Ford Hospital Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) is an 877-bed tertiary care hospital, education and research complex at the western edge of the New Center area in Detroit, Michigan. The flagship facility for the Henry Ford Health System, it was one of the first hos ...

in Detroit.

Philanthropy

In 2001, ''

Time magazine ''Time'' (stylized in all caps) is an American news magazine based in New York City. For nearly a century, it was published weekly, but starting in March 2020 it transitioned to every other week. It was first published in New York City on Mar ...

'' estimated her net worth at approximately $416 million. In 2005 at the time of her death, she owned more than 13 million shares of Ford Motor stock. Josephine and Walter Ford were major contributors to the

College for Creative Studies College for Creative Studies (CCS) is a private art school in Detroit, Michigan. It enrolls more than 1,400 students and focuses on arts education. The college is also active in offering art education to children through its Community Arts Part ...

(a $20,000,000 donation in 1997) and the

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA), located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan, has one of the list of largest art museums, largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it covers with a major renovation a ...

among other institutions. Dody donated Van Gogh's '' Portrait of the Postman Joseph Roulin'', which was valued at $40,000,000, to the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1996. She also donated large amounts of money for cancer research leading to the formation of the Josephine Ford Cancer Center.

Sources

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ford, Josephine Clay 1923 births 2005 deaths Henry Ford family American philanthropists

Early life

Personal life

Philanthropy

See also

Sources

External links