Former Ford CEO was first who wasn’t from founding family

DETROIT — Philip Caldwell, the first person to lead Ford Motor Co. who wasn’t a member of the founding family, died Wednesday at his home in New Canaan, Conn., at the age of 93.

Mr. Caldwell, who was CEO from 1979 until retirement in 1985, is credited with leading Ford from deep financial troubles back to profitability. He also fostered development of the Ford Taurus sedan, which became the top-selling car in America for five years and helped to save the company from financial ruin.

“He helped guide the company through a difficult turnaround in the 1980s and drove the introductions of ground-breaking products around the globe,” Ford Executive Chairman Bill Ford said in a statement.

Mr. Caldwell was named CEO in 1979 and board chairman in 1980. He retired in 1985 after 32 years with the company, but remained on the board until May of 1990. He replaced Henry Ford II as CEO and was picked shortly after high- profile President Lee Iacocca was fired and later joined crosstown rival Chrysler.

Perhaps Mr. Caldwell’s biggest accomplishment was the Taurus, at the time a futuristic sedan that sold so well that it led the company out of terrible financial straits brought on by a recession, high gasoline prices and tremendous sales growth of cars imported from Japan.

Ford was losing money in the early 1980s when Mr. Caldwell took over as CEO. Jack Telnack, the chief designer on the original Taurus, remembers Mr. Caldwell chal- lenging engineers and designers to develop a radically different car that would return the company to profitability.

“He said ‘Look, we need something really different, really new, that will kind of set the pace out there,’ ” Telnack said in a 2006 Associated Press story about the end of Taurus production.

The Taurus, a car with futuristic rounded edges and smaller, more fuel- efficient engines than the traditional Detroit V-8 that powered family cars back then, was an instant hit. The company sold 263,000 of them in 1986, the first full year of production. It became the best-selling car in America in 1992 with sales of nearly 410,000, unseating the Honda Accord.

Mr. Caldwell grew up in Ohio and received his bachelor of arts degree from Muskingum College in 1940. Later, he earned a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.

Mr. Caldwell joined Ford in 1953 after serving in the Navy in World War II.