Irrevocable bond assignment related to the estate of Ford Motor Company president Edsel Ford, one page, 8.5 x 7, February 1, 1944, signed on his behalf by his wife and executrix Eleanor Clay Ford, who agrees to sell, assign, and transfer unto “Tinsley & Co…Bonds No. 908/11 for $1,000.00 each of State of New York Loan for the extension and Improvement of the Palisades Interstate Park 4% Bonds of the issue of March 1911, registered in the name of Edsel B. Ford.” Includes the aforementioned 4% State of New York extension and improvement loan from Palisades Interstate Park, issued June 10, 1940. In overall fine condition.
Ford died in 1943 at the age of 49 and all of his nonvoting stock was donated through a codicil in his will to the Ford Foundation, which he had founded with his father seven years earlier. Each of his children inherited sizable shares in the Ford Motor Company, and the three sons all worked in the family business. On Edsel’s death, his father briefly reassumed the presidency of Ford, then Edsel’s son, Henry Ford II, became president of the company on September 21, 1945. Edsel Ford was one of the most significant art benefactors in Detroit history, and he helped finance exploratory expeditions, including the historic flight of Admiral Richard Byrd over the North Pole in 1926. Byrd, in his Antarctic expeditions, also financed by Edsel, named the Edsel Ford Range of mountains after him. Other Antarctic homages include Ford Massif, Ford Nunataks, and Ford Peak.
