September 2005 - Henry Ford
Pictured here are Henry Ford, wearing the apron, and his son Edsel Ford, in the lab smock. In the center of the picture is George F, Kidney, my father. There is probably more story to this picture than I know.
My father told me of a visit to his family's Wyoming homestead by Henry Ford. The homestead belonged to Henry S. Kidney and his wife Della Gentry and was near Torrington, Wyoming (and is still in family hands). Henry S. Kidney's father was Benjamin Kidney and his mother was Lucy J. Ford, a daughter of Isaac Ford, and presumably a relative of Henry Ford although I have not been able to document it beyond this picture. Ford was George F. Kidney's middle name, honoring his grandmother Lucy. George F. Kidney was born in 1904 and appears about 20 in this picture, dating it to approximately 1924.In 1996, Richard A. Wright, an assistant professor of journalism in Wayne State University's Communication Department of the College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts and a former automotive writer at The Detroit News, chose to name his hitory of the automobile West of Laramie, maybe to honor Henry Ford's Wyoming junket to visit the Kidney family.
My father remained faithful to the Ford Automobile Company for most of his life. teaching me to drive in a Ford Galaxy 500.
By Gary Kidney