Honoring Claude Harvard’s Life and Legacy

On February 7, I will be participating in a public presentation at the Detroit Public Library focused on the life, work, and legacy of my grandfather, Claude Harvard.

This event is an important moment—not just for our family, but for anyone who believes American innovation deserves a complete and accurate record. Claude Harvard was an inventor and automotive engineer whose ideas contributed to the industry at a formative time. Yet, like many innovators, his story has not been fully preserved or publicly recognized by the institutions connected to his work.

This petition calls on Ford Motor Company and the Ford Foundation to formally recognize Claude Harvard’s engineering contributions. That recognition matters—not as a symbolic gesture, but as an acknowledgment of how innovation actually happens: through curiosity, experimentation, and problem-solving, often beyond traditional credentials or titles.

As both his granddaughter and an educator, I see this work as part of a larger responsibility—recovering historical knowledge before it disappears, and ensuring that contributors to American history are recognized as exactly that: contributors to American history.

The February 7 presentation is one step in that process. This petition is another.

Thank you to the more than 6,200 people who have already signed. Your support helps move this conversation forward—and helps ensure that important stories like Claude Harvard’s are not lost to time.

Checkout - the event details and please continue to sign and share this petition to help build momentum.