Friday 1st June 1973

Harvey Jr. Firestone (75), American chairman of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., died in Akron, Ohio. In 1920, Firestone joined the company his father had founded. By 1926, he had been elected a Director and Vice President of the newly-organized Firestone Plantations Company. He established dozens of rubber plantations around the world to supply the company with raw rubber. Besides developing new sources for basic materials, Firestone made the company’s products more available at home by pioneering expansion into auto supply and service stores. In addition to carrying on his father’s work in the company, the younger Firestone was an important national leader in the campaign for better roads. In a 1953 broadcast on the ‘Voice of Firestone?’ radio and television program, Firestone called for improvements to highways and parking facilities, concluding: ‘America’s future progress depends on better and safer highways.’