For almost two decades, there was no Ford running Ford Motor Company. After Henry Ford II stepped down as chairman in 1979, only professional managers were allowed into the top position. Finally, in 1998, the company declared that chairman Alex Trotman would step down a year earlier than expected to let William Clay "Bill" Ford, Jr. (born 1957), assume control, with Jacques "Jac" Nasser functioning as president and chief executive officer.

Speculation simmered for years that either Ford or his cousin, Edsel Ford II, were in line to become the next leader. However, it came to a full boil in 1996 when major business publications proclaimed that Ford would be the next chairman of the board, even if he would not be in charge of day-to-day operations per se.

Though his name was probably one reason that, at age 41, he was promoted to lead the world's second-largest industrial firm, Ford still had...