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Harvey Samuel Firestone was the founder of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, one of the first global makers of automobile tires and an important contributor to North American economic growth in the 20th century.

[edit] Biography

Firestone was born in his family's farm house on December 20th 1868 in the small town of Columbiana, Ohio, the second of three children, to Benjamin Firestone, a farmer, and A. Catherine Flickinger. After graduating from Columbiana High School, Firestone worked for the Columbus Buggy Company in Columbus, Ohio before starting his own company in 1890, making rubber tires for carriages. In 1895 he married Isabelle Smith. They had five children: Harvey S. Firestone, Jr., Russell A. Firestone, Leonard Firestone, Raymond Firestone and Elizabeth Firestone. In 1904 Firestone joined Henry Ford to make rubber tires for the newly popular automobiles. The Ford-Firestone corporate marriage was later cemented when Henry's grandson William Clay Ford wed Martha Firestone, granddaughter of Harvey, who then became parents of current Ford Motor Company Chairman, William Clay Ford, Jr. The farmhouse where Firestone was born is now located in Greenfield Village (Dearborn, MI), a 90-acre historical site founded by Henry Ford.

Firestone was concerned both with the manufacture of tires and with securing supplies of rubber from trees: At one point, the company had a rubber plantation in Liberia that covered more than 4,000 square kilometers (1 million acres). During World War II the company was called on by the U.S. Government to make artillery shells, aluminum kegs for food transport and other rubberized military products. In 1938, Firestone died peacefully in his sleep at his vacation home in Miami Beach, Florida at age 69.

[edit] The Millionaires Club

Firestone, Ford and Thomas Edison were generally considered the three leaders in American industry at the time, and often worked and vacationed together. All three were part of a very exclusive group titled "The Millionaires Club" . This was a true gentlemen’s club where one would call another in the appropriate city and ask him to purchase a building or other items for them without so much as a handshake, merely on his word.

[edit] Honors

The main library of Princeton University is named Firestone Library in his honor. It is among the largest university libraries in the world. In 1973, Firestone was posthumously inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio is named in his honor. He also has a memorial there.

[edit] External links