Caldwell Leaves as Chairman of Ford Motor Co.

Philip Caldwell, who presided over Ford Motor Co. through record losses and its subsequent historic turnaround, retired Friday as chairman of the nation’s No. 2 auto maker.

It was under Caldwell’s tenure that Ford suffered a record loss of $1.5 billion in 1980 and losses of $1 billion in 1981 and $657 million in 1982. But the company rebounded in 1983 with a $1.87-billion profit, making that the biggest year-to-year turnaround in U.S. corporate history.

Caldwell spent his last day on the job Thursday talking to workers at Ford’s Rawsonville, Mich., engine parts plant--site of a pioneering labor agreement. In a speech, he praised the auto maker’s 115,000 blue-collar employees.

“You have done great things and I want you to know how much I appreciate what you have done,” Caldwell told 3,100 cheering workers.

He called Rawsonville “a symbol for all of us around the world.”

“Above all, I think we discovered how to work with each other. That doesn’t seem like a secret that was very hard to discover, but it’s amazing how long it took us to come to it.” Caldwell said.

The 65-year-old Caldwell, the first person outside the Ford family to run the company, is being succeeded by Ford President Donald Petersen. Caldwell will remain a director of the Dearborn, Mich.-based company. Harold A. Poling, executive vice president for Ford’s North American operations, will succeed Petersen as president.