William Clay began at Ford Motor Company in 1949, working around the company for a few years to gain experience before being named Manager of Special Product Operations (later the Continental Division) in 1951. In 1955, he was named Group Director of the Lincoln and Continental Divisions. The Continental Division was integrated into the Lincoln Division in 1956, and William Clay was promoted to Vice President of Product Planning and Styling in 1957. He later served on the Board of Directors, retiring from Ford in 2005. Ford’s oral history begins by discussing his father’s, Edsel B. Ford, influence on his love of cars and design, recalling early vehicles his father bought for him and trips to racetracks in the US and England. The majority of the oral history focuses on his early career at Ford, particularly his time heading up the Continental Division. He talks about launching the division from scratch, his core team of Harley Copp, John Reinhardt, and Bob Thomas, and the joys and challenges of the years 1951-1956. He goes into detail about the design process for the Continental including the in-house design as well as those submitted by Raymond Lowey, George Walker, and Henry Grisinger. He also discusses company politics, particularly Lewis Crusoe’s role in dissolving the Continental Division. He briefly discusses his work in the design department after the Continental and his role in placing Gene Bordinat in charge of the department. Ford wraps up his oral history discussing the changes in vehicle design to a more function focused approach in the 1970s and 1980s.

Collection contains 4 cassettes, 2 WAV files, 2 MP3 files, 1 diskette, 1 bound transcript, and 1 PDF transcript. Uploaded July 23, 2021 and December 5, 2024.

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Finding aids with "Ford, William Clay, 1925-" as subject

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William Clay Ford Edison Institute Records, 1950-1981

Keyword: Ford, William Clay, 1925-2014 in Digital Collections

Acc. 624 Douglas T McClure Records box 10 Book of Continental design drawings