Henry Kaiser's purchase of W-O

[teaberry35]

Jim & Jack said the membership might be interested in how K-F came to own W-O. I'm kinda long winded so
bear with me. A little background. In 1936 when W-O was released from receivership, Ward Canaday took
over the newly re-organized Willys Corp. John North Willys had died in 1935, but was not very
actively involved with the company after he got back from being ambassador to Poland in 1933. Not long
after WWII, Mr Kaiser started making overtures to Mr Canaday about acquiring W-O, but Canaday refused.
In late 1951, early 1952, Canaday was in Italy for marketing discussions with Fiat. He had a massive
heart attack and was hospitalized there for a few months, and then a slow boat back to the US. He was
bed-confined in his NYC apartment. Kaiser came to visit. Here I will quote to the best of my memory the
conversation as Canaday told me.  Kaiser came barging into the room and said: "Ward, g--d----, you're
gonna die, so sell me your company". Canaday's reply was: "Henry, you can have it, now get the h--- out". According to Mr Canaday, the paperwork started the next day.
The irony is, although Kaiser bought W-O from Canaday while Canaday was on his death bed, Canaday
outlived Kaiser by 9 years.

[Gordie]

That's a great story and thanks for sharing it with us.

[pnw_oldmags]

Fantastic Story - THANKS for sharing.

[Jim B PEI]

What a GREAT story, and how perfectly apposite for both men's characters!!!

[49 K491]

Wow.. thanks for sharing that great story

[Kaiser Ranchero]

Anymore information along those lines would be appreciated.

[kaiserfrazerlibrary]

There is another aspect to the story.  Right around the time all this would have happened, the Quartermaster Corps notified Willys-Overland that the military had accepted the Ford M-151 vehicle as the standard rather than an updated form of the M38A1.  The contract would phase in over time, but Canady was about to loose a big chunk of business that the company might never get back (or at least not get back for some time).  That, coupled with the need in late 1952 to decide about the future of the Aero series passenger cars (which needed a financial commitment for work on a replacement platform) made him think about getting out. 

[teaberry35]

Your Librarian/Historian is exactly right. W-O was in a bit of trouble in the
early 50s. Civilian Jeep sales, while pretty robust, just couldn't provide the
revenue enjoyed during WWII. Our club, WOKR, concentrates its interest
on the 1902-42 W-O vehicles, so I never really studied the post-war nuances
of the company. Canady never made specific remarks, but I got the impression
that he sort of wearied of the problems of running W-O. He was pretty old.
When I began talking to him in the late 60s, he was running the Overland
Investment Co in Toledo. I felt that he just needed something to do, maybe a
"get him out of the house" type of deal.
As for the Ford M-151, the DOD sure made a mistake there. I never was in
one, but friends who were said it was a dangerous piece of junk (the polite word).
One of my best friends, a USMC company commander in 'Nam refused to let his
troops ride in one after one of his staff was killed in a low-speed roll-over in
a M-151.