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Henry Ford's chief designer — co-creator of the Model T
On the record
Childe Harold Wills was born in Fort Wayne on June 1, 1878, and grew up in Detroit, where his father worked as a toolmaker. He became one of Henry Ford's first employees and, from 1903, Ford Motor Company's chief designer and metallurgist. He is credited with the Model T's planetary transmission and detachable cylinder head, with bringing vanadium steel into Ford production, and with penning the calligraphic script "Ford" logo the company still uses. He left Ford in 1919, a wealthy man, and built his own luxury car, the Wills Sainte Claire; he later consulted for the Ruxton and for Chrysler. He died on December 30, 1940.
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- § 06 — people of the record · famous-people supplement
Sources: Detroit Historical Society; Hemmings.