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Case file s179 · Foundations · 1947
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1947
Henry Ford and Charlie the Elephant at Universal City 1916 02
Henry Ford and Charlie the Elephant at Universal City 1916 02. Universal Animated Weekly. Public domain, Wikimedia Commons.
Died
7 April 1947 (Henry Ford)
Place
Dearborn, Michigan · United States
Field
automobiles · Business and finance on the timeline
Legal tradition
US federal tax law; Michigan law · Common law
Historical event
1935 estate tax increase; Patman investigations and the Tax Reform Act of 1969
FoundationsSeized by the stateGiven awayPostwarNorth AmericaUnited StatesFord family

The Fords put 90% of Ford Motor into a foundation and kept the votes, and Henry Ford II quit its board in 1976

Edsel Ford and two executives chartered the Ford Foundation in Michigan on 15 January 1936†. Henry Ford's will split his Ford Motor holdings into Class A nonvoting and Class B voting stock. After Edsel died in 1943 and Henry in 1947, the foundation held 90% of the company as nonvoting shares. Edsel's widow Eleanor and her four children kept voting control through 10% held as Class B shares. The nonvoting shares went to charity free of estate tax; the family kept the company. By 1958 the foundation held $3.3 billion, 29% of all US foundation assets. Rep. Wright Patman used it as the main example of foundations keeping companies in one family's hands. The foundation sold its Ford shares between 1955 and 1974†. In the 1969 hearings that produced the 20% holdings limit, the foundation was attacked for grants to Robert Kennedy's aides and voter drives. Henry Ford II, Edsel's son, sat on its board for decades. In December 1976 he resigned, writing that the foundation should show appreciation for the capitalist system that created it. In February 2019 Henry Ford III joined the board, the first Ford trustee since 1976†.

What the law took from it

Splitting votes from value lets a family give away most of a company and keep control, until tax law forces the charity to sell.

Sources
  1. Internet ArchiveGovernment record
  2. urban.orgPress
  3. The New York TimesPress
  4. Wikipedia (English)Encyclopedia

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “The Fords put 90% of Ford Motor into a foundation and kept the votes, and Henry Ford II quit its board in 1976,” story s179, https://www.celebrity.estate/fords-1947, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

FoundationsSeized by the stateGiven awayPostwarNorth AmericaCommon lawUnited StatesFord family