The Ford Family
Origins and History
William Frank Ford
Personal & Family Data
| Now 90! | With Letters of Love! |
| Nickname | TopDog |
| Born | January 27, 1934 Rockford, IL |
| Father | William Kenneth Ford, M.D. |
| Mother | Gladys Margaret Ford |
| Siblings | Peter Woodworth Ford David Palmer Ford |
Spouse
 |
Linda May Ford |
| Married
|
December 31, 1991 Chardon, OH |
| Former Spouse
|
Margaret Mary Ford |
| Children | William Kenneth Ford, II Susan Coletta Sturm Kathleen Palmer Byers Elizabeth Seton Ford |
Ancestors & Descendants
William Frank Ford
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Bio
Bill's early days were spent in Rockford, Illinois, except for a brief stint in Winnetka, Illinois while his father was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station just after the outbreak of World War II. He caused all kinds of trouble for his suffering parents, who sent him away to a Jesuit boarding high school (Campion, located in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin). What kind of trouble? Well, there was the time he crawled out under a bridge over a 200-foot ravine and then had to be rescued by sailors, the time he and his brother Peter set the vacant lot next door on fire, the time he and Paul Stringer broke every window in Mr. Campbell's boat house, the time police arrested him for cutting out all the pictures from every book on wooden sailing ships at the Rockford Public Library, the time he . . . well, you get the idea.
At Campion Bill prospered, rarely getting beaten up by his classmates, and finding time to excel in Latin and Greek (though not in football or basketball). Graduating near the top of his class, he accepted a scholarship to John Carroll University, hoping to become a forensic pathologist (he wanted to be a doctor like his father, but, recognizing early on that his people skills would always be inadequate for dealing with live patients, he planned to have a practice using only dead ones). A month after he arrived at John Carroll to begin his freshman year his wife Linda was born. (He did not date her right away.)
At John Carroll, however, he was tricked by wicked advisors into enrolling in a Liberal Arts curriculum, and subsequently led astray by an evil classmate named Bill Larkin who promised to open a nuclear science laboratory with him if only he would switch to physics as a major. When that classmate then took up English Literature as a major, Bill closed his ears to any further advice and doggedly finished his studies in physics. (During his senior year he spent much time away from school, serving as the National President of the National Federation of Catholic College Students.)
Emerging from John Carroll with honors, Bill then betook himself to Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) for graduate studies. His doctoral dissertation, "Structure of Low Lying Levels of Lithium 6," failed to produce a Nobel Prize, but its title clearly bespoke the dactylic influence of his Campion days.
There is lots more to tell about events, from then until he was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Medal at millennium's end, but the story-teller has exhausted himself for today.
Bill's early days were spent in Rockford, Illinois, except for a brief stint in Winnetka, Illinois while his father was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station just after the outbreak of World War II. He caused all kinds of trouble for his suffering parents, who sent him away to a Jesuit boarding high school (Campion, located in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin). What kind of trouble? Well, there was the time he crawled out under a bridge over a 200-foot ravine and then had to be rescued by sailors, the time he and his brother Peter set the vacant lot next door on fire, the time he and Paul Stringer broke every window in Mr. Campbell's boat house, the time police arrested him for cutting out all the pictures from every book on wooden sailing ships at the Rockford Public Library, the time he . . . well, you get the idea.
At Campion Bill prospered, rarely getting beaten up by his classmates, and finding time to excel in Latin and Greek (though not in football or basketball). Graduating near the top of his class, he accepted a scholarship to John Carroll University, hoping to become a forensic pathologist (he wanted to be a doctor like his father, but, recognizing early on that his people skills would always be inadequate for dealing with live patients, he planned to have a practice using only dead ones). A month after he arrived at John Carroll to begin his freshman year his wife Linda was born. (He did not date her right away.)
At John Carroll, however, he was tricked by wicked advisors into enrolling in a Liberal Arts curriculum, and subsequently led astray by an evil classmate named Bill Larkin who promised to open a nuclear science laboratory with him if only he would switch to physics as a major. When that classmate then took up English Literature as a major, Bill closed his ears to any further advice and doggedly finished his studies in physics. (During his senior year he spent much time away from school, serving as the National President of the National Federation of Catholic College Students.)
Emerging from John Carroll with honors, Bill then betook himself to Case Institute of Technology (now Case Western Reserve University) for graduate studies. His doctoral dissertation, "Structure of Low Lying Levels of Lithium 6," failed to produce a Nobel Prize, but its title clearly bespoke the dactylic influence of his Campion days.
There is lots more to tell about events, from then until he was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Medal at millennium's end, but the story-teller has exhausted himself for today.
Occupation
As indicated in his Bio, Bill went to NASA after finishing his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics at Case. Except for a very brief departure to fulfill military obligations, he remained at NASA for 45 years. At the end of that time, just before retirement, he was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Medal. Here is the document that accompanied that award:
Dr. William F. Ford began a career of exceptional service as a Senior Nuclear Theorist in the Materials and Structures Division, where he conducted research in particle scattering as part of the Center's cyclotron team. He first studied elastic scattering of charged particles, and discovered an anomalous behavior of the scattering process due to the long-range nature of the electromagnetic force. This became the subject of several papers in The Physical Review and the Journal of Mathematical Physics.
Turning next to inelastic scattering, Dr. Ford developed a systematic method of relating data from the scattering to the target nuclear structure in terms of what he termed "inelastic scattering form factors." This permitted a very tight link between what was hitherto two parallel but largely disconnected areas of research. He used his methods to predict the static and dynamic properties of the light deformed nuclei from O16 through Ca40, using data obtained from inelastic nucleon scattering. The research earned him an invitation to present his results at the Nuclear Structure Theory International Conference in Rome, Italy.
During this period Dr. Ford's remarkable ability to build tools for bridging the gap between technology and human needs began to be revealed. In addition to the simplifying effect of using inelastic scattering form factors, he developed and published formulas and methods for calculating reduced matrix elements of single-particle operators, and for calculating the complicated coefficients that appear in the quantum mechanical theory of angular momentum. When NASA phased out its nuclear physics program, it was a natural step for Dr. Ford to join the Computing Service Division.
Here he began by making significant contributions to the scientific and general-purpose software libraries used throughout the Center. Among these were XFONT, a tool for displaying mathematical formulas in mainframe-produced documents; SFTRAN, a precompiler enabling structured FORTRAN programming; and SIMPS, a robust adaptive implementation of the standard numerical integration procedure. Today these software programs have been replaced by standard, vendor-produced libraries; but at the time, they were the only way for users to gain access to the capabilities they needed.
Along the way, Dr. Ford initiated and led a major research effort into the acceleration of convergence of sequences and series. It has become a major area of study in numerical analysis. In carrying this out he has mentored summer faculty fellows, guided and worked with NRC associates, and monitored annual grants to several universities. In particular, his work with Dr. David Smith of Duke University and Dr. Avram Sidi of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology has led to extensive publications in the field. Some of these works were seminal, and are widely quoted throughout the literature and in textbooks.
Dr. Ford is now internationally recognized as an expert on the subject of acceleration of convergence; he routinely acts as a referee for many journals on papers dealing with this subject. His work has been applied to iterative processes carried out in the Center's scientific and engineering divisions. In particular, the research results have been successfully applied to speed up the well-known turbo-machinery code developed by senior scientist Dr. John Adamcyzk.
His leadership qualities were soon recognized, and Dr. Ford began a management career guiding the mathematical support functions of the division. When the division acquired three new mainframes with different operating systems in a single year, including a supercomputer, Dr. Ford was given the task of building the Mainframe Systems Branch to support them. Later he took over leadership of the Scientific Services Branch. It was during this period that Dr. Ford led a major procurement to acquire a new mainframe vector processor. To ensure that the machine would adequately handle the Center's varied processing needs, he devised an ingenious benchmark to simulate the projected growth of requirements during its expected lifetime; the entire procurement eventually earned the praise of GSA as one of the best they had ever reviewed.
Along the way Dr. Ford developed an interest in producing software for widespread general-purpose use. One of his earliest efforts was a menu system that was eventually adopted by LIMS, and became the Center's primary menu system for many years. He then developed ELI, an electronic in-basket system that alerted users to changes in business processes of interest without the need to log on to the mainframes. As before, these systems have been replaced by new capabilities brought by modern operating systems; but at the time they were the only way to satisfy vital user needs.
After that Dr. Ford led an effort to define a new team aimed at institutionalizing the bridge-building approach to serving customer needs which he championed over the years. The team has focused on advancing the utilization of commonly available software, by making productivity improvements that satisfy customer requirements. Once the team was underway, he served as guide and mentor to team members in activities such as systems engineering, project planning, and training in programming and software development.
A key aspect of the team's approach is to analyze the customer's business processes and recommend redesign wherever possible, resulting in dollars saved and increased productivity far beyond what was originally requested. Examples of the team's output that depended critically on Dr. Ford's skills include: an Agency-wide system to map NASA-funded dollars to various districts and states, prepared for a joint presentation with the FAA to the Senate and House during their "Technology Days on the Hill"; automating the Center's SES Performance Review System; an electronic Laboratory Survey to gather information on all laboratories at the Center; and a system for the Advanced Communications Technology Project Office to use bar-code scanners to inventory satellite equipment into an Access database.
Dr. Ford served for two terms as a member of the Human Resources Panel in CSD, seeking to develop processes to improve the career development paths of co-workers and peers. For many years he had been an Advisor for the National Research Council's Research Associate Program. Because of his expertise and reputation, he served on the Chief Scientist's Research Advisory Board, which reviews proposals for the Glenn Strategic Fund and judges Distinguished Publications.
In addition to being a regular mentor of summer students and summer faculty fellows, Dr. Ford has strengthened NASA's ties to the academic community in other ways. He has served as an adjunct faculty at Case Western Reserve and Cuyahoga Community College. He was also a Certified Flight Instructor for more than twenty years, been an invited speaker at professional meetings of the Society of Engineering Science, and lectured at special conferences in mathematics.
As indicated in his Bio, Bill went to NASA after finishing his Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics at Case. Except for a very brief departure to fulfill military obligations, he remained at NASA for 45 years. At the end of that time, just before retirement, he was awarded NASA's Exceptional Service Medal. Here is the document that accompanied that award:
Dr. William F. Ford began a career of exceptional service as a Senior Nuclear Theorist in the Materials and Structures Division, where he conducted research in particle scattering as part of the Center's cyclotron team. He first studied elastic scattering of charged particles, and discovered an anomalous behavior of the scattering process due to the long-range nature of the electromagnetic force. This became the subject of several papers in The Physical Review and the Journal of Mathematical Physics.
Turning next to inelastic scattering, Dr. Ford developed a systematic method of relating data from the scattering to the target nuclear structure in terms of what he termed "inelastic scattering form factors." This permitted a very tight link between what was hitherto two parallel but largely disconnected areas of research. He used his methods to predict the static and dynamic properties of the light deformed nuclei from O16 through Ca40, using data obtained from inelastic nucleon scattering. The research earned him an invitation to present his results at the Nuclear Structure Theory International Conference in Rome, Italy.
During this period Dr. Ford's remarkable ability to build tools for bridging the gap between technology and human needs began to be revealed. In addition to the simplifying effect of using inelastic scattering form factors, he developed and published formulas and methods for calculating reduced matrix elements of single-particle operators, and for calculating the complicated coefficients that appear in the quantum mechanical theory of angular momentum. When NASA phased out its nuclear physics program, it was a natural step for Dr. Ford to join the Computing Service Division.
Here he began by making significant contributions to the scientific and general-purpose software libraries used throughout the Center. Among these were XFONT, a tool for displaying mathematical formulas in mainframe-produced documents; SFTRAN, a precompiler enabling structured FORTRAN programming; and SIMPS, a robust adaptive implementation of the standard numerical integration procedure. Today these software programs have been replaced by standard, vendor-produced libraries; but at the time, they were the only way for users to gain access to the capabilities they needed.
Along the way, Dr. Ford initiated and led a major research effort into the acceleration of convergence of sequences and series. It has become a major area of study in numerical analysis. In carrying this out he has mentored summer faculty fellows, guided and worked with NRC associates, and monitored annual grants to several universities. In particular, his work with Dr. David Smith of Duke University and Dr. Avram Sidi of the Technion Israel Institute of Technology has led to extensive publications in the field. Some of these works were seminal, and are widely quoted throughout the literature and in textbooks.
Dr. Ford is now internationally recognized as an expert on the subject of acceleration of convergence; he routinely acts as a referee for many journals on papers dealing with this subject. His work has been applied to iterative processes carried out in the Center's scientific and engineering divisions. In particular, the research results have been successfully applied to speed up the well-known turbo-machinery code developed by senior scientist Dr. John Adamcyzk.
His leadership qualities were soon recognized, and Dr. Ford began a management career guiding the mathematical support functions of the division. When the division acquired three new mainframes with different operating systems in a single year, including a supercomputer, Dr. Ford was given the task of building the Mainframe Systems Branch to support them. Later he took over leadership of the Scientific Services Branch. It was during this period that Dr. Ford led a major procurement to acquire a new mainframe vector processor. To ensure that the machine would adequately handle the Center's varied processing needs, he devised an ingenious benchmark to simulate the projected growth of requirements during its expected lifetime; the entire procurement eventually earned the praise of GSA as one of the best they had ever reviewed.
Along the way Dr. Ford developed an interest in producing software for widespread general-purpose use. One of his earliest efforts was a menu system that was eventually adopted by LIMS, and became the Center's primary menu system for many years. He then developed ELI, an electronic in-basket system that alerted users to changes in business processes of interest without the need to log on to the mainframes. As before, these systems have been replaced by new capabilities brought by modern operating systems; but at the time they were the only way to satisfy vital user needs.
After that Dr. Ford led an effort to define a new team aimed at institutionalizing the bridge-building approach to serving customer needs which he championed over the years. The team has focused on advancing the utilization of commonly available software, by making productivity improvements that satisfy customer requirements. Once the team was underway, he served as guide and mentor to team members in activities such as systems engineering, project planning, and training in programming and software development.
A key aspect of the team's approach is to analyze the customer's business processes and recommend redesign wherever possible, resulting in dollars saved and increased productivity far beyond what was originally requested. Examples of the team's output that depended critically on Dr. Ford's skills include: an Agency-wide system to map NASA-funded dollars to various districts and states, prepared for a joint presentation with the FAA to the Senate and House during their "Technology Days on the Hill"; automating the Center's SES Performance Review System; an electronic Laboratory Survey to gather information on all laboratories at the Center; and a system for the Advanced Communications Technology Project Office to use bar-code scanners to inventory satellite equipment into an Access database.
Dr. Ford served for two terms as a member of the Human Resources Panel in CSD, seeking to develop processes to improve the career development paths of co-workers and peers. For many years he had been an Advisor for the National Research Council's Research Associate Program. Because of his expertise and reputation, he served on the Chief Scientist's Research Advisory Board, which reviews proposals for the Glenn Strategic Fund and judges Distinguished Publications.
In addition to being a regular mentor of summer students and summer faculty fellows, Dr. Ford has strengthened NASA's ties to the academic community in other ways. He has served as an adjunct faculty at Case Western Reserve and Cuyahoga Community College. He was also a Certified Flight Instructor for more than twenty years, been an invited speaker at professional meetings of the Society of Engineering Science, and lectured at special conferences in mathematics.
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