Kettering Foundation

08/29/2026

Every generation has its way of sharing ideas. Long before podcasts and TED Talks, Charles F. Kettering was on the airwaves on Sunday afternoons. Even then, it was important to him that his ideas were shared beyond the laboratory 🎙️

Listen to one of his five-minute talks from 1943 that reached listeners nationwide during “General Motors Symphony of the Air,” alongside the music of the NBC Orchestra conducted by Arturo Toscanini: https://bit.ly/3SHMTI2

November 14, 1943National Broadcasting Company (NBC)General Motor...

08/29/2026

By 1933, Charles F. Kettering’s curiosity had carried him from a small Ohio town to the cover of Time Magazine—recognized as a thinker whose ideas had already changed everyday life.

Today we continue to take inspiration from his story: what feels impossible may simply be something waiting for someone willing to imagine it differently.

https://bit.ly/4y9KK7c

TIME Magazine Cover: Charles F. Kettering

08/29/2026

While Charles F. Kettering’s birthday cake would hold 150 candles today, can you guess how many patents he held in his lifetime?

Kettering dedicated his life to finding solutions for everyday problems. His pursuit of better ways to start cars, power homes, preserve food, and tackle various challenges led him to hold a remarkable 186 patents (in his name alone) and continues to inspire the work of the foundation.

Explore many of them here: https://bit.ly/4y8uumQ

📸: Photo Courtesy of GM Heritage Archive.

08/29/2026

TODAY!
Join us from 12:30 to 5 p.m. for this FREE community celebration of The Soul of Black Folks exhibition, in partnership with the Kettering Foundation. The celebration includes lunch, artist talks, poetry readings, dance, music and a quilting activity. Come for any or all of the events. All are welcome!

08/29/2026

💡 Before push-button starts, getting a car moving meant using a hand crank and hoping for the best. Charles F. Kettering had another idea.

After graduating from The Ohio State University, Kettering returned to Dayton and found himself among a community of people eager to experiment. Working with the “Deeds Barn Gang,” “Boss Ket” developed the electric automobile self-starter in 1908, helping turn shared problem solving into an innovation that changed the automobile.

Photo Courtesy of GM Heritage Archive.

08/29/2026

What do Charles F. Kettering, America’s centennial, and the telephone have in common? They all arrived in 1876.

Kettering was born the same year Alexander Graham Bell debuted the telephone and the US marked 100 years of independence. Not a bad year for new beginnings!

Today we are excited to celebrate Kettering’s 150th birthday by sharing more about his life.

📸: Photo Courtesy of GM Heritage Archive.

08/28/2026

KF Senior Fellow William Kristol reflects on the 1963 March on Washington, the progress made toward King’s dream, and why, despite today’s challenges, he believes we can still renew that progress.

The country that beat fascism, communism, and Jim Crow still has some promise left.

08/28/2026

Watch KF Senior Fellow Ruth Ben-Ghiat join Harvard professor Danielle Allen to discuss how civic education can help people recognize and question rhetoric that turns political opponents into existential threats:

Sign up for Lucid, the newsletter about threats to democracy: https...

08/28/2026

Using data from the Kettering Foundation and Gallup’s Democracy for All Project, KF Research Fellow Andrew Whitehead explores the strong connection between religious participation and civic engagement in America:

Data from the 2025 Democracy for All Project from the Kettering Foundation and Gallup provide some answers.

08/28/2026

KF Senior Fellow David French thought peak “wokeness” might spark a free-speech renaissance. Instead, he argues, the anti-woke movement embraced many of the same intolerant tactics it opposed. What happened?

https://nyti.ms/4hW34fh

The anti-woke movement’s “cure” was more intolerance and more repression.