Ford Friend Harry Bennett Dies

Ford friend Harry Bennett dies

Harry H. Bennett, right-hand man to Henry Ford, and one of the most powerful figures in the auto industry during the 1930s and 40s, is dead at a Los Gatos, Calif., nursing home at the age of 86.

And true to the mysterious and controversial manner of his life, his death remained unreported for over a week, and no cause of death has as yet been released.

Bennett, who suffered a stroke in 1973, apparently died at the Los Gatos home on Jan. 4, but the coroner in San Jose refuses to release information about his death until the return from the Philippines of Bennett’s daughter, Billie Martin, one of four Bennett children and the present legal guardian of her father. Three other daughters, Gertrude, Harriet, and Esther also survive.

The stocky and powerfully-built Bennett had been a sailor, deep-sea diver, and champion light-weight boxer when Ford picked him as “head of security” in 1920. He served Ford and his auto empire until 1945, when he stepped aside from the powerful position of Personnel Chief in favor of John Bugas.

During that time he became one of the most controversial figures in the country, especially for his union-busting tactics during the 1930s, culminating with the famous “Battle of the Overpass” in 1937, where his chief adversary was the then youthful Walter Reuther, organizer for the UAW.

That battle triggered a four-year “war” between the forces of Ford and the union, which Ford eventually lost, and which eventually broke Bennett’s power in the auto organization.

For a time Bennett and his family made their home in Ann Arbor, building a magnificent and mysterious “castle” on Geddes Road, complete with underground passages and an “escape tunnel” to the river, and a playground, with swimming pool, stables, tennis courts, and the like, across the river on an “island” cut off by the railroad tracks.

After his loss of power with the Ford empire, Bennett moved to an adobe ranch house in the middle of an 800-acre wilderness area outside Desert Springs, California, and his only return to the spotlight was during the Kefauver Senate Crime Investigating Committee hearings in 1951, where he was one of the most spectacular witnesses.