Former Ford CEO Don Petersen, who spent 41 years with automaker, dies at 97

[michaelluscher]

Donald E. Petersen, the former Ford Motor Co. CEO whose visionary leadership won praise for saving the company in the 1980s, died Wednesday at his home in Bloomfield Hills at age 97, according to numerous reports citing a family member.

Petersen, a mechanical engineer and native of Pipestone, Minnesota, began at Ford in 1949 and left in 1990. He spent his last decade at the top — as chief operating officer from 1980-85, then chairman and CEO from 1985 to 1990.

Former Ford CEO Don Petersen, who spent 41 years with automaker, dies at 97

Don Petersen stepped out of the spotlight after leaving Ford as CEO, but his legacy is vast.

www.freep.com

Interesting legacy, he brought change to Ford in the early 80s
He brought us the "World Car" Escort, and the '86 Taurus
Much more alert and relevant IMO than GMs Roger Smith at the time

 

[KGMtech]

Good age.

 

[daves87rs]

RIP

 

[KCJeep]

The Taurus was ground breaking.

 

[Tdbo]

Ford could certainly use a leader with his vision and skills right now.
RIP, Mr. Petersen.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

I guess he should have bought the extended warranty!

 

[dnewton3]

RIP.
Ford could use someone like that with his clear vision and common sense at the helm now.

 

[researcher]

I read the article, I never knew he brought in W. Edward Deming! Deming was the one who helped Toyota with their system of management and production. When all the big 3 wouldn't even listen, Toyota did! Amazing the level of arrogance from the Big 3, and look now, Ford won't even fix the fuel leakage problem on their fuel injectors.. only a band-aid fix, crazy! Yes they really do need a Petersen CEO again, if it's not already too late.

The cars Petersen came out with were really something, when they said in the article that quality from 1980 to 89 improved 66%, you could really tell the cars were night/day differences after 9 years!

 

[michaelluscher]

Found him in an old Detroit documentary when they were praising the Fairmont and soon to be released Tempo


What's sad is, '80s Ford products weren't the best, but they were apparently a quantum leap ahead of the previous generations?
Someone dust off Demings 14 point plan, and hand it to Jim Farley

 

[researcher]

@michaelluscher excellent find on that video!! it really shows how the competition (Japanese) shows the american companies how much junk they were making. Any consumer at the time could've told the big 3 that but it's only when sales began to fall they realized, uhh... we have a problem!! Today, the arrogance is off the chart with the Big 3 believing some dream of an electrified world without the electrical infrastructure to support it. And even with EV sales tanking severely the insanity is to push forward regardless of the losses.. now that is really crazy. Call it politics, whatever is the driving force, businesses that pursue this EV dream will be affected because the buying public doesn't have the $$$ nor the infrastructure to support it. Economy is going towards Stagflation worse than the 70's or early 80s, no one cares about EV's when they cannot pay for food on the table!

I know I keep saying it but Mr Toyoda is correct (even though he was made fun of for saying it) in that Hybrids will be the future for now, not pure EV's.. but since this thread is about Ford's Don Petersen passing away, Ford can either improve their quality, come down to reality of the price of a vehicle or face extinction..