Childe Harold Wills, Sr. also known as C. Harold Wills, or C. H. Wills, was an American automotive designer, manufacturer and metallurgist.
Background
Childe H. Wills, Sr. was born on June 1, 1878, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the youngest of three children of John Carnegie Wills, a railroad master mechanic, and Mary Engelina Swindell. His ancestry was largely Scottish and Welsh, his paternal grandfather having come from Scotland by way of Canada in 1832.
Education
Completing his primary schooling in Detroit, Wills, Sr. apprenticed himself to a toolmaker.
Career
By 1901 he had become chief engineer of the Boyer Machine Company, forerunner of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company.
In 1902 Wills, Sr. arranged with Henry Ford to work in his off hours on the design of an experimental racing car that Ford had conceived - the second of two early business ventures that preceded the formation of the Ford Motor Company. After the success of this model, Ford and Wills, Sr. set to work designing a commercial car, and when the Ford Motor Company was incorporated on June 16, 1903, Wills, Sr. - now a full-time employee - secured an agreement giving him a share in any future dividends that Ford might receive. In the new company Wills, Sr. acted as chief engineer and factory manager, helping to design every Ford car, including the Model T. At night he read textbooks and technical articles. He was persuasive in presenting an idea and could discuss illuminatingly the details of manufacture or the reasons for company policies.
He had an interest in production routines, designing machine tools to improve factory operation, but gradually his chief concern became the study of metals used in automobile construction: he adapted vanadium steel and other alloys to Ford use and eventually developed molybdenum steel for use in parts subject to wear or stress. There had long been a veiled uneasiness between Ford and Wills, Sr. the result chiefly of the dynamic qualities of both men. Wills, Sr. seems to have chafed under the limitations of the Model T, and after World War I he may have felt that Ford's increasing concentration of authority and the expansion of the company into a mammoth and intricate organization were the signals for his departure.
He left the company on March 15, 1919, with plans for the production of a quality car, the Wills-St. Claire. He had ample resources, having for years received a high salary and, as agreed, a percentage of Ford's dividends. A final payment of $1, 592, 128 was made to him on August 6, 1919.
Like Ford in earlier years, Wills, Sr. had a keen interest in the welfare of workers, and in planning for his new car he acquired 4, 250 acres at Marysville, near Port Huron, Mich. , and spent $3, 500, 000 on housing, parks, and playgrounds before opening his plant. The Wills-St. Claire, introducing molybdenum steel, four-wheeled brakes, and other features, was highly regarded, but Wills, Sr. spent too much time and money on changes, and in 1923 the company which he had established went into a receivership, ceasing production in 1926. Wills, Sr. then resumed his experiments in metallurgy, producing a number of useful alloys and after 1933 acting as consulting metallurgist to the Chrysler Corporation. After a stroke in 1940, he died on December 30, 1940, at the Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Achievements
Membership
Childe H. Wills, Sr. enjoyed social life and was a member of many clubs in the Detroit area.
Personality
Childe Wills was a tall, dark, forthright, dynamic young man with an insatiable appetite for work.
Interests
Despite his absorption in technical work, Wills, Sr. loved outdoor life: hunting and fishing.
Sport & Clubs
Childe H. Wills, Sr. was keen on golf and tennis.
Connections
In 1904, Childe H. Wills, Sr. married Mabel Preston and adopted her daughter, Virginia, as well as having Josephine with Mabel.
On January 3, 1914, Wills, Sr. married Mary Coyne, by whom he had two sons.