Benson Ford
The Futura later became the most famous and recognizable car in the world for several years, television's Batmobile driven by Batman actor Adam West.
In addition to being a vice-president of the Ford Motor Company and Lincoln-Mercury director, Benson was chairman of the Board of the Edison Institute, chairman of the Board of Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, and was the prominent key national co-chairman of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, an organization espousing religious tolerance which evolved into one of the most important religious tolerance organizations in the United States today.
In the summer the family traveled by private rail car to their oceanside estate at Seal Harbor, Maine.
Activities included driving gasoline powered cars scaled to their size, camp outs, tree climbing, and tending to a half-acre farm created by Henry for their use.
On Saturdays they would go with Henry to the engineering laboratory where they would drive Model Ts inside the building and shuffle time cards.
Ford Engineer Lawrence Sheldrick, said that the boys, "didn't pull any punches about getting their hands dirty ... and their clothes all messed up".
Sheldrick took Edsel to watch the tests of the first completed jeep model, and arranged for Henry and Benson to drive it out of a patch of tall grass and underbrush right up to their father.
[16] [11] During World War II, Benson was twice rejected from service as status 4-F, due to blindness in his left eye.
Despite his left eye blindness, Benson insisted and persisted, and was finally allowed to enlist in the United States Army in 1942, as a private.
Benson completed officer's candidate school in Fargo, North Dakota, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in June 1943.
Shortly thereafter he was made aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Samuel M. Connell and was transferred into the Army Air Corps.
In October 1944 Benson was transferred to the Newfoundland Base Command of the United States Air Corps for 13 months.
Captain Ford separated from the Army in February 1946, honorably discharged at the end of all wartime hostilities, and came home.
After World War II Ford was re-organized in the image of General Motors into profit centers and a line and staff components.
On January 30, 1948, Benson was elected a vice president of the company and appointed the director of the newly formed Lincoln-Mercury Division, carrying on in his father's foot-steps.
"[21] The Mercury version was unique from the Ford and the sleek, rakish design was based on upscale Lincoln products.
The large side panels were also perfect for after-market customization and the engine was easily modified to improve performance.
Benson Ford accomplished the goal of making Mercury competitive in the medium priced car markets.
Benson Ford made the decision to partner with Bill Stroup to enter a team of 1953 Lincolns in the 1952 Pan-American Road Race.
Not content, Benson brought the winning driver to meet with Ford engineers to identify areas for improvement.
[24][25] In 2013, Barris sold the original Benson Ford Futura Car turned Batmobile for 4.6 million dollars.
As President of the hospital Board of Trustees, Benson was instrumental in securing a one hundred million dollar grant from the Ford Foundation in 1973.
[4] Benson Ford Sr., with a history of heart problems, died of a heart attack on July 27, 1978, a week after his 59th birthday, aboard his yacht "Onika", docked at the resort community of Cheboygan, Michigan (originally an Ojibwe Chippewa Anishinaabe indigenous settlement, later resettled as Duncan City) where he was living at the time, primarily summers, and at other times, on Lake Hudson, near the northern tip of Michigan's Lower Peninsula.
His widow, Edith McNaughton Ford, president and owner of the Key Largo Anglers Club in Key Largo, Florida, and a member of the Board of Trustees of Henry Ford Hospital for 36 years, died in a Detroit hospital after a long illness, reported to be cancer of the throat, on August 9, 1980, age 60, and is buried alongside Benson.
Alternatively, many investors would make their stock decisions based on short-term earnings and rapid changes in the share price, a very different perspective.
[35][36][37] Years after his passing, Benson Ford remains famous for the forward cabin and pilothouse of the Great Lakes lake freighter MV Benson Ford named for him, known today as the Benson Ford Shiphouse on South Bass Island, Ohio near the village of Put-In-Bay, Ohio, which has miraculously survived a century of history to become a private summer home (not open to the general public as it is a private residence).
Powered by a 3,000 bhp, four-cylinder, two-stroke, single-acting Sun-Doxford opposed piston diesel engine, 23 5/8" bore x 45 5/8" stroke per piston (91 ¼" total combined stroke), built by the Great Lakes Engineering Works in Ecorse, Michigan.
Her sister ship (and nearly identical), the MV Henry Ford II was also finished in 1924 and was built by the American Shipbuilding Company of Lorain, Ohio.
When licensing for the potential unique ship inn could not be obtained, the MV Benson Ford was resold five years later as a private island residence.
The Benson Ford Shiphouse can be seen on a cliff at a distance on land by individuals traveling to Put-In-Bay village on South Bass Island riding the Miller Ferry.
