Edsel Ford Leaving Ford Motor

April 9, 1998 / 11:37 AM EDT / AP

Edsel Bryant Ford II is leaving his job at Ford Motor Co., the global automaker founded by his great-grandfather 95 years ago.

Ford, 49, president of Ford Motor Credit Co. since 1991, announced Thursday he will leave the post on May 1. He will serve as a consultant to the company and focus on community affairs.

"I'm at a point in my career, when my age and nearly 25 years of service, the responsibility of the Ford name, and my father's legacy in southeast Michigan community affairs, puts me at a crossroads," Ford said in a statement.

"I've examined what matters most to me, and have decided to change my role with Ford so I can spend more time on community affairs, and yet keep involved with the company and its dealers," he said.

"I now will have the best of both worlds."

The resignation "is a shocker," auto industry analyst Chris Cedergren of California-based Nextrend told the Detroit Free Press.

The decision appears to reinforce expectations that if a Ford is to once again be chairman of the automaker, it likely will be Edsel's cousin William Clay Ford Jr., the Free Press said.

The late Henry Ford II, Edsel's father, was the last company chairman from the Ford family. He stepped down in 1980.

Alex Trotman, who has been chairman and chief executive for more than four years, is scheduled to stay in the job through 1999. He led Ford to record 1997 profits of $6.9 billion on $153.6 billion in revenue.

Ford joined the company in 1974 as a product planning analyst after earning a bachelor's degree in business administration from Massachusetts' Babson College.

From 1978 to 1980, he was the assistant managing director of the automaker's Australian operations. During the 1980s, he served in various executive roles in sales and marketing for Ford and Lincoln-Mercury. He was elected to Ford's board of directors in 1988.

"Edsel is in an enviable position, in that many people especially baby boomers would like to retire early and do more community work. I think it's quite honorable that he's doing that," Cedergren said,