Corey Ford

Corey Ford (April 29, 1902-July 27, 1969) was an American humorist, author, outdoorsman, and screenwriter. He was also friendly with several members of the Algonquin Round Table and occasionally ate lunch there.

Ford was a member of the Class of 1923 at Columbia College of Columbia University, where he edited the humor magazine Jester of Columbia and wrote the Varsity Show Half Moon Inn. But he failed to graduate, instead embarking on a career as a freelance writer and humorist. In the 1930s he was noted for satirical sketches of books and authors penned under the name "John Riddell". Richard Wright's "Black Boy" was lampooned as "Hollywood Boy" contrasting the author's celebrity with the raw story portrayed in the book. Theodore Dreiser was shown adopting the guise of a common workman building his newest and biggest novel from bricks and mortar. A forgotten book, "Dead Lovers are Good Lovers," was reviewed as "Dead Novelists are Good Novelists." Ford's series of "Impossible Interviews" for Vanity Fair magazine featured ill-assorted celebrities, among them Stalin vs. John D. Rockefeller, Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes vs. Al Capone, Sigmund Freud vs. Jean Harlow, Sally Rand v.s Martha Graham, Gertrude Stein vs. Gracie Allen, Adolf Hitler vs. Huey Long.

Ford published 30 books and more than 500 magazine articles, many of them marked with a gregarious sense of humor, a love of dogs and "underdogs." He told many stories of the literary scene in the twenties, of headhunters in Dutch Borneo, of U.S. airmen in combat during World War II. He loved conversation and comradeship and was a great listener as well.

Though born and raised in New York City, he fell in love with the outdoors generally and New Hampshire in particular, which led this world traveler to his rendezvous with Dartmouth College. In 1952, Ford moved to Hanover, New Hampshire, the home of Dartmouth, where he became an adopted member of the Class of 1921. His connection with the college lay mainly in his relationships with students. He was an advisor to the Dartmouth chapter of Delta Kappa Epsilon (his fraternity at Columbia) and to several student publications. In addition, he helped to organize the Dartmouth College Rugby Football Club (or DRFC) and opened a gym in his home near the campus for students interested in boxing. When he died in 1969, he left most of his estate, including his house, to the rugby club with instructions to use the money to build a clubhouse for the team. After many years of political and legal wrangling, the 6,000-square-foot (560 m2) Corey Ford Rugby Clubhouse was completed and dedicated in September, 2005.

In an article entitled "Football for Fun," written in 1959, he explained this affinity: "Perhaps you wonder how I came to take up rugby. Well, the fact is that rugby took up me. My home here in Hanover adjoins the college playing-fields; and so in the course of time it has been adopted as headquarters of the Dartmouth Rugby Club, an independent organization which has no home of its own. I am hailed as ‘Coach’ for want of a better title."

In her introduction to The Corey Ford Collection in Dartmouth's Rauner Library, Mildred C. Tunis wrote, "To countless Dartmouth men, the name of Corey Ford will bring back nostalgia for some of their most meaningful experiences as undergraduates when he was coach of boxing and rugby, a fellow Delta Kappa Epsilon, advisor on student publications, counselor, and friend."