DETROIT, Mich. -- From many parts of the world this morning come tributes to the world's wealthiest man. Henry Ford, who died last night.
Indicating Ford's high international renown, his death has been given banner headlines in London newspapers.
Sir Miles Thomas, one of Britain's two largest auto makers, says: "Everybody who uses a motor car ought to pay tribute to the pioneer work of Mr. Henry Ford.''
The general manager of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, George Romney, calls Ford a man who, in Romney's words, "used productive genius to benefit all the people not just the rich or well-to-do."
Ford died at the age of 83 of a cerebral hemorrhage in surroundings similar to those in which he first lived as the poor son of an Irish immigrant. He died at his suburban home in Dearborn, Michigan, in a room lighted only by candles and kerosene lamps and heated by a wood-burning fireplace. The creator of the world's greatest industrial empire passed his last moments with only his wife whom he called his inspiration and one member of his household staff at his bedside.
His grandson, Henry Ford II, who now is president of the Ford Motor Company, has announced that all Ford Company operations throughout the world will be suspended Thursday when funeral services will be held in Detroit.
Ford left an empire and an estate worth perhaps one-billion dollars.
