In 1929, Ford made an agreement with the Soviets to provide technical aid over nine years in

building the first Soviet automobile plant (GAZ) near Nizhny Novgorod (Gorky).[88] (an
additional contract for construction of the plant was signed with The Austin Company on August
23, 1929).[89] The contract involved the purchase of $30,000,000 worth of knocked-down Ford
cars and trucks for assembly during the first four years of the plant's operation, after which the
plant would gradually switch to Soviet-made components. Ford sent his engineers and
technicians to the Soviet Union to help install the equipment and train the working force, while
over a hundred Soviet engineers and technicians were stationed at Ford's plants in Detroit and
Dearborn "for the purpose of learning the methods and practice of manufacture and assembly in
the Company's plants."[90] Said Ford: "No matter where industry prospers, whether in India or
China, or Russia, the more profit there will be for everyone, including us. All the world is bound
to catch some good from it."[91]

By 1932, Ford was manufacturing one third of all the world's automobiles. It set up numerous
subsidiaries that sold or assembled the Ford cars and trucks:

 Ford of Australia
 Ford of Britain
 Ford of Argentina
 Ford of Brazil
 Ford of Canada
 Ford of Europe
 Ford India
 Ford South Africa
 Ford Mexico
 Ford Philippines

Henry Ford in Germany; September 1930

Ford's image transfixed Europeans, especially the Germans, arousing the "fear of some, the
infatuation of others, and the fascination among all".[92] Germans who discussed "Fordism" often
believed that it represented something quintessentially American. They saw the size, tempo,
standardization, and philosophy of production demonstrated at the Ford Works as a national
service—an "American thing" that represented the culture of the United States. Both supporters
and critics insisted that Fordism epitomized American capitalist development, and that the auto
industry was the key to understanding economic and social relations in the United States. As one
German explained, "Automobiles have so completely changed the American's mode of life that
today one can hardly imagine being without a car. It is difficult to remember what life was like
before Mr. Ford began preaching his doctrine of salvation".[93] For many Germans, Ford
embodied the essence of successful Americanism.

In My Life and Work, Ford predicted that if greed, racism, and short-sightedness could be
overcome, then economic and technological development throughout the world would progress
to the point that international trade would no longer be based on (what today would be called)
colonial or neocolonial models and would truly benefit all peoples.[94] His ideas in this passage
were vague, but they were idealistic.

Racing

Ford (standing) launched Barney Oldfield's career in 1902

Ford maintained an interest in auto racing from 1901 to 1913 and began his involvement in the
sport as both a builder and a driver, later turning the wheel over to hired drivers. He entered
stripped-down Model Ts in races, finishing first (although later disqualified) in an "ocean-to-
ocean" (across the United States) race in 1909, and setting a one-mile (1.6 km) oval speed record
at Detroit Fairgrounds in 1911 with driver Frank Kulick. In 1913, Ford attempted to enter a
reworked Model T in the Indianapolis 500 but was told rules required the addition of another
1,000 pounds (450 kg) to the car before it could qualify. Ford dropped out of the race and soon
thereafter dropped out of racing permanently, citing dissatisfaction with the sport's rules,
demands on his time by the booming production of the Model Ts, and his low opinion of racing
as a worthwhile activity.

In My Life and Work Ford speaks (briefly) of racing in a rather dismissive tone, as something
that is not at all a good measure of automobiles in general. He describes himself as someone who
raced only because in the 1890s through 1910s, one had to race because prevailing ignorance
held that racing was the way to prove the worth of an automobile. Ford did not agree. But he was
determined that as long as this was the definition of success (flawed though the definition was),
then his cars would be the best that there were at racing.[95] Throughout the book, he continually
returns to ideals such as transportation, production efficiency, affordability, reliability, fuel
efficiency, economic prosperity, and the automation of drudgery in farming and industry, but
rarely mentions, and rather belittles, the idea of merely going fast from point A to point B.

Nevertheless, Ford did make quite an impact on auto racing during his racing years, and he was
inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1996.[96]

Later career and death

When Edsel Ford, President of Ford Motor Company, died of cancer in May 1943, the elderly
and ailing Henry Ford decided to assume the presidency. By this point, Ford, nearing 80 years
old, had had several cardiovascular events (variously cited as heart attacks or strokes) and was
mentally inconsistent, suspicious, and generally no longer fit for such immense responsibilities.
[97]

Most of the directors did not want to see him as president. But for the previous 20 years, though
he had long been without any official executive title, he had always had de facto control over the
company; the board and the management had never seriously defied him, and this moment was
not different. The directors elected him,[98] and he served until the end of the war. During this
period the company began to decline, losing more than $10 million a month ($147,750,000
today). The administration of President Franklin Roosevelt had been considering a government
takeover of the company in order to ensure continued war production,[58] but the idea never
progressed.

Ford grave, Ford Cemetery

His health failing, Ford ceded the company Presidency to his grandson, Henry Ford II, in
September 1945 and retired. He died on April 7, 1947, of a cerebral hemorrhage at Fair Lane, his
estate in Dearborn, at the age of 83. A public viewing was held at Greenfield Village where up to
5,000 people per hour filed past the casket. Funeral services were held in Detroit's Cathedral
Church of St. Paul and he was buried in the Ford Cemetery in Detroit.[85][99]

Personal interests
A compendium of short biographies of famous Freemasons, published by a Freemason lodge,
lists Ford as a member.[100] The Grand Lodge of New York confirms that Ford was a Freemason,
and was raised in Palestine Lodge No. 357, Detroit, in 1894. When he received the 33rd degree
of the Scottish Rite in 1940, he said, "Masonry is the best balance wheel the United States
has."[101]

In 1923, Ford's pastor, and head of his sociology department, Episcopal minister Samuel S.
Marquis, claimed that Ford believed, or "once believed," in reincarnation.[102]

Ford published an anti-smoking book, circulated to youth in 1914, called The Case Against the
Little White Slaver, which documented many dangers of cigarette smoking attested to by many
researchers and luminaries.[103] At the time smoking was ubiquitous and was not yet widely
associated with health detriment, so Ford's opposition to cigarettes was unusual.

Interest in materials science and engineering

Henry Ford long had an interest in materials science and engineering. He enthusiastically
described his company's adoption of vanadium steel alloys and subsequent metallurgic R&D
work.[104]

Ford long had an interest in plastics developed from agricultural products, especially soybeans.
He cultivated a relationship with George Washington Carver for this purpose.[105][106][107] Soybean-
based plastics were used in Ford automobiles throughout the 1930s in plastic parts such as car
horns, in paint, etc. This project culminated in 1942, when Ford patented an automobile made
almost entirely of plastic, attached to a tubular welded frame. It weighed 30% less than a steel
car and was said to be able to withstand blows ten times greater than could steel. It ran on grain
alcohol (ethanol) instead of gasoline. The design never caught on.[108]

Ford was interested in engineered woods ("Better wood can be made than is grown"[109]) (at this
time plywood and particle board were little more than experimental ideas); corn as a fuel source,
via both corn oil and ethanol;[110] and the potential uses of cotton.[109] Ford was instrumental in
developing charcoal briquets, under the brand name "Kingsford". His brother in law, E.G.
Kingsford, used wood scraps from the Ford factory to make the briquets.

In 1927 Ford partnered with Thomas Edison and Harvey Samuel Firestone (each contributing
$25,000) to create the Edison Botanic Research Corp. in Fort Myers, Florida, to seek a native
source of rubber.

Ford was a prolific inventor and was awarded 161 U.S. patents.

Florida and Georgia residences and community

Ford had a vacation residence in Fort Myers, Florida next to that of Thomas Edison, which he
bought in 1915 and used until approximately 1930. It is still in existence today and is open as a
museum.[111]

He also had a vacation home (known today as the "Ford Plantation") in Richmond Hill, Georgia
which is still in existence today as a private community. Ford started buying land in this area and
eventually owned 70,000 acres (110 square miles) there.[112] In 1936, Ford broke ground for a
beautiful Greek revival style mansion on the banks of the Ogeechee River on the site of a 1730s
plantation. The grand house, made of Savannah-gray brick, had marble steps, air conditioning,
and an elevator. It sat on 55 acres of manicured lawns and flowering gardens. The house became
the center of social gatherings with visitations by the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and the DuPonts.
It remains the centerpiece of The Ford Plantation today.[113] Ford converted the 1870s-era rice
mill into his personal research laboratory and powerhouse and constructed a tunnel from there to
the new home, providing it with steam. He contributed substantially to the community, building
a chapel and schoolhouse and employing numerous local residents.
Preserving Americana

Ford had an interest in "Americana". In the 1920s, Ford began work to turn Sudbury,
Massachusetts, into a themed historical village. He moved the schoolhouse supposedly referred
to in the nursery rhyme, "Mary Had a Little Lamb", from Sterling, Massachusetts, and purchased
the historic Wayside Inn. This plan never saw fruition. Ford repeated the concept of collecting
historic structures with the creation of Greenfield Village in Dearborn, Michigan. It may have
inspired the creation of Old Sturbridge Village as well. About the same time, he began collecting
materials for his museum, which had a theme of practical technology. It was opened in 1929 as
the Edison Institute. Although greatly modernized, the museum continues today.

In popular culture

Mr. and Mrs. Henry Ford in his first car, the Ford Quadricycle

 In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (1932), society is organized on "Fordist" lines, the years are
dated A.F. or Anno Ford ("In the Year of our Ford"), and the expression "My Ford" is used
instead of "My Lord". The Christian cross is replaced with a capital "T" for Model-T.
 Upton Sinclair created a fictional description of Ford in the 1937 novel The Flivver King.
 Symphonic composer Ferde Grofe composed a tone poem in Henry Ford's honor (1938).
 Ford appears as a character in several historical novels, notably E. L. Doctorow's Ragtime (1975),
and Richard Powers' novel Three Farmers on the Way to a Dance (1985).[114][115]
 Ford, his family, and his company were the subjects of a 1987 film starring Cliff Robertson and
Michael Ironside, based on the 1986 biography Ford: The Man and the Machine by Robert Lacey.
 In the 2005 alternative history novel The Plot Against America, Philip Roth features Ford as
Secretary of the Interior in a fictional Charles Lindbergh presidential administration.
 The British author Douglas Galbraith uses the event of the Ford Peace Ship as the center of his
novel King Henry (2007).[116]
 Ford appears as a Great Builder in the 2008 strategy video game Civilization Revolution.[117]
 In the fictional history of the Assassin's Creed video game franchise, Ford is portrayed as having
been a major Templar influence on the events of the Great Depression, and later World War II.

Honors and recognition