John McW. Ford

Infobox Mayor | name=John McWilliams Ford
nationality=American
office= Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana (Caddo Parish), Louisiana, USA
party=Democratic Party
term_start=1918
term_end=1922
preceded=Robert Hodges Ward
succeeded=Lee Emmett Thomas
office2= Shreveport City Council member
term_start2=1908
term_end2=1912
office3=Caddo Parish Police Jury member
term_start3=1912
term_end3=1916
office4=State Representative from Caddo Parish (at-large)
term_start4=1916
term_end4=1917
preceded4=At-large membership
succeeded4=E. Wayles Brown
date of birth=birth date and age|1880|2|18
place of birth=Shreveport, Louisiana
place of death=Shreveport
date of death=death date and age|1965|7|1|1880|2|18
occupation=Public official
spouse=Mary Pierce Ford
children=No children
religion=Methodist
footnotes=(1) Ford was Shreveport’s longest serving public official, having been in office from 1908-1965, except for 1922-1930. (2) Ford was an unassuming man who answered his own telephone and always kept his office door open to the general public. (3) Ford is honored by the naming of the recreational center, Ford Park on Cross Lake.

John McWilliams Ford (February 18, 1880 – July 1965) was the longest-serving elected public official in Shreveport, Louisiana. Though he served as mayor only from 1918-1922, it was his tenure as finance commissioner that is most remembered for longevity -- from 1930 until his death. The finance commissioner was established under the previous city commission government, which was replaced in 1978 by the mayor-council form of municipal government.

Ford’s first elective office was as city alderman in 1908. He was also a member of the Caddo Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body now known as the Caddo Parish Commission. [Veta Samuels, History of the Caddo Parish Commission] A Democrat, he served in the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1916, until he stepped down in 1918 to become mayor after the death of S.A. Dickson, M.D. Robert Hodges Ward had followed Dickson, and then Ford was elected to a single four-year term from 1918-1922. Ford then spent eight years in the private sector before returing to City Hall as finance commissioner, a position which he handily retained in the elections of 1930, 1934, 1938, 1942, 1946, 1950, 1954, 1958, and 1962.Ford obituary, "Shreveport Times", July 1965, retrieved by librarian Sandra Davis] Dwight L. Saur, a Certified Public Accountant succeeded Ford as finance commissioner in 1966. Saur himself died in office in 1971, and the position then went to its last occupant and only Republican, George A. Burton, Jr. The new city charter superseded the finance commissioner’s post.

Gardner and McKeithen laud Ford

Former Shreveport Mayor James C. Gardner, who served with Ford during the 1954-1958 term, said that the commissioner, though forty-four years his senior, was his mentor in city government. Writing in his memoirs entitled "Jim Gardner and Shreveport, Vol. 1", Gardner recalled how Ford had helped Gardner’s father get his first job after having returned from the United States Navy at the end of World War I. Gardner continued:

“Despite the age difference, he was always extremely respectful of me, always referring to me as 'The Mayor.' In city council sessions, I could always count on [his] saying, 'I think that we ought to go along with the Mayor on this.' We became good friends, and I would visit with him every morning that I was Mayor. At this stage our unofficial visits involved his preparation of the 1955 city budget. He was very cooperative in some budget requests that I made. . . . John Ford was perhaps the most totally accessible public official that I ever knew. He answered his own telephone and always insisted on an office opening directly into a public corridor, and his door was always open. . . . " [James C. Gardner, "Jim Gardner and Shreveport, Vol. 1", Ritz Publications, Shreveport, Louisiana, pp. 289-290]

Governor John McKeithen sent a message of condolence to the Ford family and the citizens of Shreveport: "Commissioner Ford’s contributions, not only to Shreveport but to all of Louisiana, leave a mark to which all public servants might well aspire. Commissioner Ford was truly a dedicated man, and we all will miss him."

Services for Ford were held at the Osborn Funeral Home Chapel in Shreveport, with the Reverend George Pearce, Jr., superintendent of the Shreveport district of the Methodist Church officiating, joined by the Reverend Robert Park, assistant rector of St. Marks’s Episcopal Church. Interment was in Greenwood Cemetery.

Ford is remembered through the naming of Ford Park on Cross Lake.

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
before=At-large members
title=Louisiana State Representaive from Caddo Parish (at-large)
John McWilliams Ford
years=1916–1917
after=E. Wayles Brown succession box
before=Robert Hodges Ward
title=Mayor of Shreveport, Louisiana
John McWilliams Ford
years=1918–1922
after=Lee Emmett Thomas

References