Auto industry / Business & brands
Charles E. Sorensen
1881–1968 · Ford production chief, pattern maker and manufacturing pioneer
Danish-born 'Cast-Iron Charlie', Henry Ford's production boss for four decades, who helped create the moving assembly line and ran Willow Run.
- Born
Copenhagen, Denmark- Died
Bethesda, Maryland
aged 86- Birth name
- Charles Emil Sorensen
- Also known as
- Cast-Iron Charlie
- Detroit years
- 1900–1944
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Sorensen came to Detroit with his family in 1900 and met Henry Ford while working in a local foundry. As a pattern maker he turned Ford's rough sketches into models for casting, and his foundry innovations earned him the nickname 'Cast-Iron Charlie'. He later said that one Sunday at the Piquette Avenue Plant he and a colleague tried pulling a chassis along a line of workers, an early test of the moving assembly line that he, Walter Flanders, Clarence Avery and Ed Martin then developed at Highland Park. He became a top manager at the Rouge complex, developed the one-piece V-8 engine casting of the 1930s and designed the Willow Run bomber plant, which turned out B-24 Liberators during World War II. Pushed aside in Ford's internal power struggles, he left in 1944 and became president of Willys-Overland.
Highlights
- Joined Henry Ford's circle as a pattern maker in 1905
- Co-developer of the moving assembly line (Piquette tests, Highland Park 1913)
- Key production leader at the Ford River Rouge complex
- Designed and ran the Willow Run B-24 bomber plant
- President of Willys-Overland after leaving Ford in 1944
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 4
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1905–1910
Ford Piquette Avenue Plant
Where, by his own account, he tested the idea of pulling a chassis past workers one Sunday; now a museum.
Worked here · 1910–1920s
Highland Park Ford Plant
Closed · 1910–1974
He was second in command of production when the moving assembly line was introduced here in 1913.
Worked here · 1920s–1944
Ford River Rouge Complex
He and Ed Martin 'practically lived at the Rouge' while running production there.
Worked here · 1941–1944
Willow Run Bomber Plant (Michigan Flight Museum)
Closed
The Albert Kahn–designed plant he planned for B-24 production; most of it was demolished in 2013–2014, and the surviving section houses the aviation museum.