Auto industry / Labor / Notorious figures
Harry Bennett
1892–1979 · head of Ford's Service Department, Henry Ford's enforcer
Ann Arbor–born ex-boxer who ran Ford's feared Service Department, led violent anti-union actions at the Rouge and was fired by Henry Ford II in 1945.
- Born
Ann Arbor, Michigan- Died
Los Gatos, California
aged 86- Birth name
- Harry Herbert Bennett
- Detroit years
- 1915–1945
- Field
- Auto industry, Labor, Notorious figures
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Bennett, a former Navy sailor and boxer from Ann Arbor, joined Ford in 1916 and from 1921 ran the company's Service Department, its internal security force. He staffed it with athletes, boxers and men from Detroit's underworld and used it to spy on workers and crush union organizing. During the Ford Hunger March of March 1932, Dearborn police and Ford servicemen opened fire on unemployed marchers outside the Rouge plant, killing five. On May 26, 1937, his men beat UAW organizers Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen on the Miller Road overpass at Gate 4 in the Battle of the Overpass, captured by newspaper photographers. As Henry Ford aged, Bennett became one of the most powerful men in the company. In September 1945 Henry Ford II fired him on his first day in charge; Bennett burned his files and retired to California.
Highlights
- Head of the Ford Service Department, 1921–1945
- Involved in the violent response to the Ford Hunger March, 1932
- His men attacked UAW organizers in the Battle of the Overpass, May 26, 1937
- Fired by Henry Ford II on September 21, 1945
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
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 · 1932, 1937
Gate 4 overpass, Ford River Rouge Complex
Site of the 1937 Battle of the Overpass; the 1932 Hunger March shootings took place along Miller Road. A rebuilt overpass stands at Gate 4.
Lived here · 1930s–1945
Pagodahouse
Status being checked
The Asian-style boathouse he built on Grosse Ile, one of several eccentric retreats he kept in Michigan.