Chalmers Goyert joined Ford Motor Company in 1951 as a financial analyst and supervisor of design cost and control and profit planning. From 1954-1956 he worked for the Ford division as a car planning manager for future lines. In 1956, he was promoted to executive assistant to Lewis Crusoe, working on future planning for Ford and Lincoln-Mercury. In 1957, he was named executive director of the Central Product Planning Office and in 1973, was promoted to secretary of the Policy Committee working for Henry Ford II. He continued to work in the office of the president as an executive assistant until 1978 when he was named staff executive director, a position he held until he retired in 1980. Goyert begins his oral history discussing his educational background and time at Eastman Kodak. He then talks about being hired at Ford in 1951 by Jack Reith into the Product Planning department. He discusses the power of product planning at FMC in the 1950s, the “design cost” system, and how product planning played a role in design and new model rollouts. He discusses some of the personalities he worked closely with including Henry Ford II, Ernest Breech, Lewis Crusoe, Robert McNamara, William Clay Ford, and Lee Iacocca and each of their leadership styles. He talks about his move to Future Planning and his role as head recommender for Ford cars, working closely with stylists and keeping tabs on competitors’ designs. He then moves on to his role as the first executive director of Product Planning in 1957 and his close work with William Clay Ford. After his promotion to secretary of the Policy Committee, he talks about working with Henry Ford II particularly on the development of the Thunderbird and the Falcon. He wraps up discussing his time working with Iacocca on vehicle development, budget, funding, and overseeing product roll out.

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

Related items:
Acc. 86.1.1696 Chalmers Goyert (Ford Motor Company Product Planning) Records