Henry and Edsel Ford


Photo Credit: Plan59.com

we have all heard of the archetypal story of the son
who follows in the footsteps of his highly successful
father

for the hero of this story, there are benefits; but
there are burdens and pressures as well

many men and women have lived this story: they
followed the paths taken by a successful parent;
and they managed to do quite well -

some becoming great successes in their own right

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, for example, followed in
the footsteps of a father who is one of the greatest
composers of all time, Johann Sebastian Bach

the younger Bach is now known as a founder of the
Classical style and his works continue to be recorded
and performed to this day

there are, however, many instances where those
who followed a successful parent have not fared
well; and some have been nightmare scenarios

perhaps the most infamous and unfair of them all is
the case of Edsel Ford (1893–1943)

Edsel was the only child of Henry and Clara Ford

the life of Henry Ford, of course, is perhaps the
quintessential American success story

Henry was a prolific inventor; credited with 161
U.S. patents

he founded the Ford Motor Comapny, introduced
the Model T automobile in 1908, revolutionized the
American auto industry and became one of the
richest and most well-know men of his time

Henry Ford's success was so great that a word
was coined in his honor - Fordism, a word pertaining
to Ford's mass production methods, the high wages
paid to workers and the effects of these on a
nation's economy

Edsel Ford, who was the President of the Ford Motor
Company from 1919 to 1943, also had a word coined
bearing his name

this word has nothing to do with great success,
but rather, with spectacular failure

the failure was that of the Ford Edsel (1958-60), an
ill-fated automobile that Edsel's successors at Ford
had named in his "honor", a car that is now known as
"the wrong car at the wrong time"

the Edsel lost Ford hundreds of millions at a time
when a million dollars was quite a lot of money

oh, with respect to the word bearing Edsel Ford's
name; if you go to Dictionary.com and enter Edsel,
you'll find - something useless and unwanted

if you check out his bio, you'll see that Edsel Ford
deserved a better fate; but history isn't always kind
or fair to those who follow in the footsteps

if your are in the mood to shudder and cringe,
check out the TV ad below - it proudly introduces
the all new Ford Edsel