Harvey S. Firestone

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Harvey Fierstein.
Harvey S. Firestone
Firestone c. 1910
Born
Harvey Samuel Firestone

(1868-12-20)December 20, 1868
Columbiana, Ohio, U.S.
DiedFebruary 7, 1938(1938-02-07) (aged 69)
Miami Beach, Florida, U.S.
OccupationFounder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1895)​
Children7, including Harvey Jr. and Leonard
Firestone c. 1931

Harvey Samuel Firestone Sr. (December 20, 1868 – February 7, 1938) was an American businessman, and the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires.[1]

Family background

Firestone was born in 1868 in Columbiana, Ohio, and grew up on the farm built by his grandfather.[2] The family name was originally Feuerstein; Nicholas Feuerstein, Firestone's paternal ancestor, immigrated from Alsace in 1752 and settled in Pennsylvania.[3] He was the second of Benjamin and Catherine (

Greenfield Village, a 90-acre (360,000 m2) historical site in Michigan founded by Henry Ford
, and is now part of a larger outdoor museum.

On November 20, 1895, Firestone married

William Clay Ford, Jr. (the son of Henry Ford's grandson and Harvey and Idabelle's granddaughter Martha
).

Education and career

Firestone (right) with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison c. February 1929

After graduating from

rubber tires for carriages. In 1900 he soon saw the huge potential for marketing tires for automobiles and then founded the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, a pioneer in the mass production of tires. In 1926 he published a book, Men and Rubber: The Story of Business, which was written in collaboration with Samuel Crowther.[5]

Death

Firestone died of coronary thrombosis at Harbel Villa, the beach front estate he acquired in Miami Beach, Florida. He was 69 years old.[1]

The Vagabonds

Firestone, Henry Ford, and Thomas Edison were generally considered the three leaders in American industry at the time, and often worked and vacationed together,[6] calling themselves the Vagabonds,[7] along with naturalist John Burroughs and, sometimes, President Herbert Hoover.

Legacy

The main library of

Harvey S. Firestone Memorial, a large sculpture ensemble dedicated to Firestone, created by sculptors James Earle Fraser and Donald De Lue was dedicated at the old Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Headquarters at 1200 Firestone Parkway. It currently located at the Bridgestone Americas Technology Center in Akron, Ohio
.

In 1974, Firestone was inducted into the

Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio, is named in his honor. There is a Harvey S. Firestone Park in Columbiana, Ohio. The Links at Firestone Farms, a golf course in Columbiana, sits on the site of the former family homestead. The town of Harbel in Liberia
, home to Firestone's rubber farm, the largest in the world, is named after Firestone and his wife Idabelle.

He was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 2013.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^
    New York Times
    . February 8, 1938.
  2. ^ "A Historical Timeline Of The Life And Legacy Of Harvey Firestone". firestonefarms.org. February 23, 2017. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  3. ISBN 978-0-19-977169-1
    . Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  4. ^ Tingle, Pat (August 27, 2022). "Idabelle Firestone's Gathering Place and Gardens and a Firestone visit". morningjournalnews.com. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  5. ^ Men and Rubber: The Story of Business. By Harvey Samuel Firestone, in collaboration with Samuel Crowther. London: William Heinemann & Co., printed in U.S.A., 1926.
  6. ^ Zumbrun, Francis Champ. "Famous Travelers - Edison, Ford and Firestone". Maryland Department of Natural Resources. Archived from the original on February 3, 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2013.
  7. ISBN 9781501159305
    .
  8. ^ Harvey Firestone at the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America

Further reading

  • Firestone, Harvey Samuel, and Samuel Crowther. Men and rubber: The story of business (Doubleday, Page, 1926) online
  • Knoll, Arthur J. "Harvey S. Firestone's Liberian Investment (1922-1932)." Liberian Studies Journal 14.1 (1989): 13-33. online
  • Newton, James Draper. Uncommon Friends: Life with Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Alexis Carrel, and Charles Lindbergh (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1987).
  • Skrabec Jr, Quentin R. Rubber: An American Industrial History (McFarland, 2013).

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harvey Samuel Firestone.
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