Automaker Honored
He’s a businessman, environmentalist, philanthropist and scion of one of America’s most prominent families. But it was Ford Motor Company Executive Director William Clay Ford Jr.’s commitment to education and his devotion to the Detroit community that prompted USC Shoah Foundation – The Institute for Visual History and Education to honor him with this year’s Ambassador for Humanity Award.
Ford received the award during the annual Ambassadors for Humanity fundraising gala for the institute, held Sept. 10 in Detroit, Michigan.
USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive includes more than 300 testimonies from Holocaust survivors who came to Detroit after World War II.
A partnership for education
Ford and USC Shoah Foundation are working together to bring the institute’s award-winning IWitness educational program to more schools in the Detroit area. Called IWitness Detroit, the effort is a two-year partnership between USC Shoah Foundation and the Ford Motor Company Educational Initiative.
In introducing Ford, USC Shoah Foundation founder and Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg quoted the honoree himself: “The purpose of any company is to make people’s lives better.
“These are the words and the mission of tonight’s honoree, Bill Ford,” Spielberg said. “And because I know the same can be said about the purpose of USC Shoah Foundation, it’s only fitting that we have chosen him as our 2015 Ambassador for Humanity.”
From left, actress Halle Berry and director Steven Spielberg accompany honoree William Clay Ford Jr. and his wife, Lisa Ford.
Ford talked about the auto company started by his great-grandfather, Henry Ford, and how proud he is of the efforts he and his fellow Ford employees have made in recent years in helping others.
“After Turkey’s earthquake in 1999, and the tsunami in Southeast Asia in 2004, I asked our employees to help,” he said. “The response was overwhelming, but I knew we could do more, so I founded the [Ford] Volunteer Corps. Ten years later, our employees have worked on more than 9,000 projects in 40 countries and donated more than 1 million hours to building communities.
“I am especially proud of our support for education,” he said. “Ford has long supported education around the world. In Mexico, for instance, Ford and our dealers have built more than 200 elementary schools in rural areas.”
It was also announced that Ford Motor Company will sponsor the Institute’s IWitness Video Challenge for the next two years. The annual challenge invites North American students to watch testimony from genocide survivors and create video projects that bring positive change to their communities.
Preserving voices for future generations
USC President C. L. Max Nikias attended the event along with his wife, Niki C. Nikias, and USC Dornsife Dean Steve Kay. Nikias, who was instrumental in bringing the institute to USC when he was provost in 2006, spoke of his ongoing commitment to safeguarding the voices of the 53,000 survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides in USC Shoah Foundation’s Visual History Archive.
Grammy winner and Rock and Roll Hall of Famer James Taylor highlighted the evening’s entertainment.
“At a memorial ceremony three years ago in the Hall of Remembrance at Yad Vashem, my wife and I, accompanied by a USC delegation and standing alongside an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, laid a wreath and lit the eternal flame,” he said. “Rekindling this flame in Jerusalem renewed my university’s sacred commitment to the archive. A trip to Poland this past January … for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz also rededicated our efforts to instruct and inspire students from all over the world, using the timeless lessons of the archive’s visual histories to help overcome prejudice.”
USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen Smith thanked Ford for his support of the institute and singled out the survivors in attendance for their commitment and bravery.
Gala co-chair Mickey Shapiro, a Detroit-area developer who also serves on the institute’s Board of Councilors, touched on the themes of remembrance and thanks.
“Tonight, we’re here to celebrate, to honor and to remember,” he said. “We celebrate USC Shoah Foundation, the foundation that has come to Detroit for the first time. We celebrate that this is the most successful fundraiser in USC Shoah Foundation. Thank you, Detroit.”
Golden Globe-winner and Emmy- and Academy Award-nominated actor Steve Carell served as the gala’s host, while Emmy and Academy Award-winning actress Halle Berry was the event’s special guest. Grammy Award winner James Taylor provided the night’s entertainment.