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

Early life

Josephine was born in Dearborn, Michigan, on July 7, 1923. She was the only daughter and the third of child of Edsel Ford and his wife Eleanor Lowthian ( née Clay) Ford. ^[1] Her siblings included Henry Ford II, who also served as chairman and CEO of Ford Motors, and William Clay Ford Sr. ^{[2] [3]}

Her father was the only child of Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motors. ^{[1] [4]}

Personal life

In 1943, she married Walter Buhl Ford II (1920–1991), ^[5] 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. ^[5] Walter Ford was himself involved in interior and industrial design and was the chairman and chief executive of Ford & Earl Design Associates. ^[2] They lived in Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan, and together were the parents of two sons and two daughters: ^{[1] [6]}

• Walter Buhl Ford III (1943–2010) ^[7]
• Eleanor Clay "Nonie" Ford Sullivan (b. 1946), ^{[4] [8]} who was married to Frederic Avery Bourke Jr. in 1967. ^[9] Bourke is a part owner of Dooney & Bourke, the leather company. ^[10] They divorced and she remarried, to John Sullivan Jr., and lives at 960 Fifth Avenue in New York City. ^[11]
• Josephine Clay "Joey" Ford Ingle (b. 1949), ^[4] who married John William Ingle Jr. in 1971. ^[12]
• Alfred Brush Ford (b. 1950), ^[4] who joined the Hare Krishna movement and renamed himself Ambarish Das. ^[13]

Dody and her husband were also art collectors and owned paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Pablo Picasso. ^[2] Walter died in 1991 of pancreatic cancer. ^[5] Dody died on June 1, 2005, at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. ^[1]

Philanthropy

In 2001, Time magazine estimated her net worth at approximately $416 million. ^[14] In 2005, at the time of her death, she owned more than 13 million shares of Ford Motor stocks. ^[15]

Josephine and Walter Ford were major contributors to the College for Creative Studies (a $20,000,000 donation in 1997) ^[16] and the Detroit Institute of Arts among other institutions. ^[13] 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. ^{[13] [17]} She also donated large amounts of money for cancer research leading to the formation of the Josephine Ford Cancer Center. ^[14]

See also

• Ford family tree

Sources

External links

• Josephine Clay Ford at Find a Grave