the company's 1.1 billion common shares. Under rules designed to preserve family control and drafted when the company went public in 1956, the family holds 40 percent of the voting power at the company as long as it continues to own at least 60.7 million shares of the Class B stock – even though the Class B shares make up only 6 percent of the company's overall equity... Why does this exist? The Ford family owns all 70+ million shares of the Class B stock. It is a way for them to ensure they keep control of the company no matter how much stock they have to issue to avoid bankruptcy. Some argue that dual class structures are inherently unfair because you are decoupling ownership from voting power." Death Ford died of pneumonia, five days before his 89th birthday, at his home in Grosse Pointe Shores, Michigan, on March 9, 2014. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Detroit, near his parents and elder brother, Benson. See also Ford family tree References Notes Citations Sources External links Detroit Lions bio Forbes 400 profile 1925 births 2014 deaths Detroit Lions owners Ford executives North American Soccer League (1968–1984) executives People in the automobile industry United States Navy personnel of World War II Military personnel from Michigan United States Naval Aviators Hotchkiss School alumni Yale College alumni Businesspeople from Detroit Sportspeople from Detroit Firestone family Henry Ford family Deaths from pneumonia in Michigan Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Detroit) Psi Upsilon