Harry Herbert Bennett (January 17, 1892 – January 4, 1979), was a boxer, naval sailor, and businessman. From the 1920s through 1945, he worked for Ford Motor Company and was best known as the head of Ford’s "service department", the company's internal security agency. While working for Henry Ford, Bennett's union-busting tactics made him an enemy of the United Auto Workers (UAW) trade union. He gained infamy for his involvement in activities such as in the Battle of the Overpass, a 1937 incident where UAW members protesting for higher wages were assaulted by Ford security guards.
He had various residences in Michigan, including the Great Lakes Landmark and Ford Motor Company; built Pagodahouse, the Asian-themed boathouse on Grosse Ile, MI; Bennett's Lodge near Farwell, a log cabin-style house in East Tawas; and Bennett's Castle, an estate located on the Huron River in Ypsilanti, where he kept pet lions and tigers. After being fired by Henry Ford II in 1945, Bennett left Michigan to live in California. On January 4, 1979, Bennett died in Los Gatos, California, of undisclosed causes.
Biography
Harry Bennett was born in 1892 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He went to common schools. As a youth, Bennett started competing in boxing and won some city bouts. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War I.
Career
In the early days of Ford Motor Company, a security department operated under the name of the Ford Service Department. It was to try to control the growing labor unrest and suppress the emerging labor unions. Ford had instituted a policy called "speed up", by which the speed of the assembly lines was increased slightly every week, and employees were feeling the strain. The labor issues sometimes led to violent clashes between Ford's management, the police, and some workers. Henry Ford needed someone able to handle rough situations as head of his Service Department.
Ford Service Department
Harry Bennett served as the head of the Ford Motor Company Service Department for over two decades, beginning in 1921. Bennett was and in great physical shape due to his years of boxing and service in the Navy. Legend traces Bennett's relationship to Ford Motor Company to a 1916 street brawl in New York City. At the time, Bennett, 24, was a sailor and was just off his ship. He was saved from being thrown into jail by an acquaintance of Henry Ford, Bernie Ghers, who happened to witness the fight while on his way to a meeting with Ford. Ghers, a Hearst newspaper columnist who had credibility with the police, convinced them that Bennett was not at fault, so they released Bennett without charges. On the spur of the moment, Ghers decided to take Bennett along with him to see Ford. At the meeting, Ford was more interested in Bennett's prowess in the street fight than the business at hand, and he offered Bennett a security job at the Rouge plant. Bennett's interview for the job was reported to be short. He was asked only one question by Ford as to his capabilities. "Can you shoot?" asked Henry. He could.
Bennett was known for talking and acting tough around the Ford plants. For target practice, Bennett would fire BB's from an air pistol at a small target mechanism on a filing cabinet in his basement office at the Rouge. Visitors and co-workers were puzzled by the muffled sounds of pellets striking the target. Bennett kept lions as pets at his Ann Arbor estate. He startled fellow executives by bringing the "big cats" to his office and painting images of them.
"Harry Bennett used to sit at his desk, with his feet up on the desk, and a target at the other end of the room and fire a 45 target practice in his office and if someone was invited in to have a meeting with him they better make certain that his presence was properly announced or they may have intercepted one of those."
Bennett soon recruited a collection of football players, boxers, wrestlers , and Detroit river gang members as Service Department employees. He knew nothing about making cars, but he did not need to. Bennett's close relationship with Henry Ford and his ability to get things done made him a success. All Henry had to do was ask, "Can you take care of that, Harry?" and it was done.
Bennett was so loyal to Henry Ford that when a journalist asked Bennett during an interview, "If Henry Ford asked you to black out the sky tomorrow, what would you do?" Bennett thought for a moment and said, "I might have a little trouble arranging that one but you'd see 100,000 workers coming through the plant gates with dark glasses on tomorrow."