Henry Ford Dies Today in 1947

Sixty years ago today Henry Ford died in his bedroom in Dearborn, Michigan. He was 83. Will Rogers had remarked, "It will take a hundred years to tell whether he helped us or hurt us, but he certainly didn't leave us where he found us."

Ford, of course, revolutionized the manufacturing process, yet probably one of his greatest contributions was economic. His insistence that the company's future lay in the production of affordable cars for a mass market lead him—often at odds with his investors—to lower unit costs and to implement a highly criticized minimum wage scheme. Ford's quest to make the automobile accessible to all, helped to change the make-up of American society in general. As Lee Iacocca wrote in Time magazine, “[I]f it hadn't been for Henry Ford's drive to create a mass market for cars, America wouldn't have a middle class today.”