John M. Ford (Shreveport) - Gardner and McKeithen Laud Ford

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 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. . . . "

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.