My Forty Years with Ford

Introduction

Introduction David L. Lewis Charles E. Sorensen wasan auto industry giant and one of the most important persons in Henry Ford's life. Surprisingly, he is the subject of only one book, this one, based largely on his oral reminiscences. The reminiscences were taped at the Ford Archives in the early 1950s by oral historian Owen Bombard. Sorensen praised Bombard for having a "complete and accurate Ford chronology" that kept interviews on track. At the time of the tapings, I was a Ford publicist working in the archives, located in Fair Lane, the Dearborn home of Henry and Clara Ford. Curious about the Sorensen interviews , I asked Bombard if the talks were going well. "Very much so," he replied. "Charlie plans to write his autobiography , and wants to cover every aspect of his Ford career." Sorensen claimed to have known Henry Ford "better than any man dead or alive," and perhaps he did, although others have made the same claim. In any event, Sorensen's book makes it clear that he knew Ford very well indeed. He certainly was the most powerful of the men who served Henry Ford after Ford acquired control of the Ford Company in 1906. Sorensen wasborn in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1881, the son of a farmer/modelmaker.At the age of four, he emigrated vii Vlll INTRODUCTION to the United States with his family. He eventually became a patternmaker and worked in Buffalo, Milwaukee, and finally Detroit, where in 1904 he married a pretty bookkeeper, Helen Mitchell. Their first and only child, Clifford, was born in 1905, the same year Sorensen landed a job at Ford Motor Company's new Piquette Avenue Plant. Tall, blond, and blue-eyed, Sorensen wasso handsome that Percival Perry, head of Ford's English operations, called him an Adonis. Others said he had the profile of a film star. Not all of his early associates liked him though, for he had an explosive temper and often was grimly moody. But all respected his quick, keen mind, ability, and dynamism. Sorensen gained Henry Ford's respect bytranslating Ford's design concepts into wooden parts that could be seen and studied. Advancingrapidly, he wassecond in command of Piquette production by 1907. During World War I Sorensen was assigned to organize tractor production in Dearborn. Within three years his ability and force of personality had made him the untitled head of the Rouge Plant, destined to become the world's largest factory. By 1926 he presided over Ford's branch and assembly operations, and by the late 1920s he directed the company's worldwide manufacturing. In addition, he played an important role in sales affairs. He was completely loyal to Henry Ford, and, like Henry's son, Edsel, sometimes followed orders with which he disagreed. Before moving to Dearborn, Sorensen playedan important role in the development of mass production at the Highland Park Plant. Later, his foundry expertise and innovative use of castings in engine production, plus his brusque manner, earned him the sobriquet, "Cast-Iron Charlie." "One-piece casting of the Ford V-8 engine block," the Early Ford V-8 Foundation stated in 2004, "probably was INTRODUCTION ix Sorensen's greatest achievement. The impact of the engine was so great that Ford cars equipped with the engine became known simply as V-8s. With improvements, but not major changes," the foundation added, "the engine wasmanufactured for twenty-one years, two years longer than the Model Twas produced." Sorensen's "crowning achievement," Ford historian Ford R. Bryan wrote in 1993, was the "design of the production layout of the mammoth Willow Run Bomber Plant." Others have cited as Sorensen's greatest accomplishment his role in the development of mass production. Sorensen had a domineering, almost tyrannical temperament , as illustrated by his treatment of Lincoln Motor Car Company founders, Henry M. Leland, seventy-eight, and his son, Wilfred. When Henry Ford bought failing Lincoln in 1922, he assured the Lelands that they would continue to manage the business. When the Lelands attempted to do so, Sorensen, who was charged with integrating the parent and subsidiary firms, set them straight. "You think of yourselves as exclusive," he informed Wilfred, "[but] you are no different from any other Ford plant." Sorensen's tactless takeover drove the Lelands out of the plant, to Henry Ford's considerable satisfaction. In 1929 Sorensen was dispatched to the U.S.S.R. to advise the Soviets on...