Editor’s Note: This story is part of a monthly series we’ve dubbed “Neighbor Spotlight,” where we write a feature about a person in our coverage area. Submit candidates through Open Source.
ASHLAND — Lucille Ford has accumulated a litany of accolades during her 100 years of life thus far: five academic degrees, seats on several Fortune 500 company boards, a coveted spot in the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame.
Ford also started the Ashland County Community Foundation in 1995, at 73 years of age. Already with years of service as an educator, administrator and economist, she volunteered her time for 17 years to build ACCF with no lead financial gift as is common for many other foundations.
“There was no money,” Ford said. “We passed the hat.”
Those who worked with her in the early years, including the current chief program officer of ACCF, said no one was better at getting people to donate to a cause than Ford.
“You’re not going to change the world in a day,” Ford said, “but you can make a difference.”
Today an award is given annually in Ford’s honor for her work with ACCF. The Freedom from Selfishness Award, most recently presented in November 2021, honors an Ashland County woman who demonstrates long-standing commitment to philanthropy.
Ford is also well-known in the community for her work at Ashland University: as provost, economics professor, a member of the board of trustees, vice president of academic affairs, dean of special programs and of the college of business, several other committee memberships, and chairing the AU Capital Campaign, for which she exceeded the $55 million goal by more than $4 million.
Before AU, Ford also worked at the University of Alabama and Allegheny College. She has also served on academic boards for North Central State College, Stephens College and Mary Holmes College, and has received two honorary degrees of humane letters.
Ford earned her last academic degree in her 70s and continues to learn outside the classroom each day.
“As long as we keep learning and giving, we grow,” Ford said.
While Ford’s accomplishments run long, those who know Ford define her by her impact more than her titles.
To her daughters: Ford has instilled in them a can-do attitude
“She is a trendsetter, a goal setter and a pacesetter for primarily women of the world wanting to set foot into the workforce, because in her day and age women stayed home,” said one of her daughters, Karen Ford, who went on to break boundaries as a woman in the military.
Ford’s other daughter, JoAnn Ford Watson, also went on to be one of the few women in her profession as a minister.
During their childhood, Ford incorporated her daughters into everything she did, they said.
“Growing up, it was always busy,” Ford Watson said with a laugh. “We never slowed down, from school to activities, but it was a whirlwind of love and joy and inspiration.”
Ford taught her daughters to view obstacles not as failures but as opportunities for future growth, they said.
Ford was the first woman to run for lieutenant governor of Ohio and recalled the backlash she faced as a trendsetter. Ford described one particularly virulent incident while she was walking to a press conference, and a man in the audience yelled out, “We’ll make mince meat out of her.”
While Ford assumed the man meant for the comment to intimidate or dissuade her, she said it instead motivated her to continue forward with greater passion.
“What I’m trying to tell you is sometimes you can be fired up by the negative,” Ford said.
Ford said her proudest accomplishment has been seeing her two daughters grow up and provide their own talents to the world.
To her mentees: Ford has in many instances changed their life’s trajectory
One example is Kristin Aspin, chief program officer for ACCF. Aspin was in high school when she met Ford. At the time, Aspin worked an after-school job at an insurance company, located across the street from the Presbyterian church where ACCF had its first office.
ACCF, as a new foundation, needed administrative support, so Aspin filled in where she could — and stuck around through her undergraduate studies, while working toward her master’s, and remains with the foundation today.
“I feel like she changed the trajectory of my life,” Aspin said. “I was such a shy teenager and Dr. Ford just took me under her wing, and she knew how to pull me out of my shell just the right amount at each interval.”
Aspin describes Ford as a teacher and mentor, but also as someone she considers a dear friend. The same is true for another one of Ford’s mentees: John Fraas, who Ford taught during her time as an economics professor at Ashland University.
“She was always very supportive of her students,” Fraas said. “You wanted to perform well for her because you didn’t want to let her down. She was able to motivate you as a student to perform as well as you could.”
Despite being a math major, Fraas took Ford’s introductory economics course his junior year because many of his classmates spoke highly of her.
When Fraas walked into the introductory course on the first day, the room was packed with students. So packed, in fact, that the class had to be split up — and Fraas was sent with half the room to take another professor’s class instead.
Fraas, who enrolled in the course because of Ford, spoke with the dean to inquire about getting switched back to her course. While the 10 a.m. section he enrolled in was full, the dean said he could take Ford’s other section — at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
As is the case for most upperclassmen, Fraas had tried to avoid 8 a.m. and weekend classes, but for Ford said he made an exception — and it was well worth it.
“Then about six weeks into the class, I decided that I’m going to major in economics also,” Fraas said. “And then, towards the end of the course, I said I think I want to teach economics at a university level.
“So, she changed the trajectory of my life.”
Ford went on to advise Fraas’ post-secondary education plans and job search. When a professor position opened at AU, Ford encouraged him to apply. He got the job and taught for 37 years.
Fraas emulated components of Ford’s teaching style in his own career.
“One of the major things is I wanted to make sure the students knew that I was there to help them,” Fraas said, “not to make it tough for them, but to challenge them.”
Ford also mentored Ashland’s current mayor, Matt Miller, who described Ford as the “community matriarch.”
Miller first encountered Ford while working during his teen years for Harry R. Gill II — doing house work, mowing his lawn, cleaning cars, etc. Ford was a confidant of the Gill family, the founders of the National Latex Company, and she would often visit while Miller was working.
While Miller never had Ford as a professor when he later attended Ashland University, Miller said he often stopped in her office for advice and the mentor-mentee relationship has continued ever since.
“Dr. Ford supported me in my first campaign for county commissioner, and she was one of the first to contribute to my campaign,” Miller said. “I still have copies of those checks because it was so significant to me to have someone of her stature believe that I could perform in that leadership role.”
Throughout the past three decades, Miller said he’s seen Ford’s enthusiasm transform meetings, and her determination to forge her own path transform Ashland.
“Dr. Ford possesses all of the talents — the natural talents, knowledge, charisma and abilities necessary to be successful on any stage, anywhere in the world,” Miller said.
“However, she made the decision many years ago to focus her time and energy on her own hometown community, where her family was, where her family business was, and as a result she has truly helped transform Ashland.”
To her successors: Ford has exemplified the type of servant leadership they strive to emulate
The Ashland County Community Foundation invited Jim Cutright, president and CEO of ACCF, to sit on the ACCF board in 2007, through which Cutright witnessed Ford’s leadership in action.
“For five years, up until 2012 when I ended up succeeding Dr. Ford, I had this amazing opportunity to sit around the table and watch servant leadership, true servant leadership, demonstrated by this fine lady.
“It was so compelling and so inspiring, and so when I was offered the opportunity to come into this role, those were some pretty big shoes to fill.”
While Cutright said succeeding Ford was a daunting task, Ford provided the stable footing that was key to subsequent growth.
“It all started with this lady,” Cutright said, gesturing to Ford.
Ford also attributes her accomplishments as a leader to the goals she put forth.
“The hope and the promise has to be in the hearts of the people, not just the leader,” Ford said. “A leader can only lead if there are people who want to join the mission — and, if you have a mission that is truly powerful, effective, wanted, needed, all those good words.”
Ford said the largest changes she has seen in Ashland throughout her lifetime were growth in the business community, and the weaving of the college into that community.
Ashland University president Carlos Campo first met Ford when he visited AU as a finalist for the presidency. Campo recalls asking leaders during his visit about AU’s identity and history, one of whom was Ford, who was serving as board member emeritus at the time. While others gave him short answers on the spot, Ford took nearly two days to respond.
“When she got back to me, it was a three-page overview of those questions,” Campo said. “That just showed me how much she cared about those issues, and she didn’t want to give me just a quick response but something that was really meaningful and thoughtful and reflected her nearly 30 years at the institution.”
Ford’s meticulousness continued when Campo assumed the role of president in 2015. Campo said Ford spent hours ensuring he and his wife understood the people, not just the logistics, that make AU run.
“She just said, ‘Hey, the two of you really need to get to know this group of people’ and gave us a list and kind of walked us through the relationships,” Campo explained. “I mean, she took half a day to really help us understand the folks who really had a lasting legacy here.”
Since campo has been president, he has heard dozens of alumni speak about Ford’s teaching.
“Many of them have said to me things like, ‘When I first took a class with Lucille Ford, I thought to myself it doesn’t matter that the field is economics. I don’t care what she teaches. I just want to take another class from her,'” Campo said. They say things like, ‘If I could have majored in Ford, I would have would have.'”
Campo and others spoke of Ford’s resolve and intentionality in all her ventures. Ford’s advice to the younger generation reflects just this.
“Find something you have enough interest in to devote your time, attention, your dreams, your failures, anticipate good and bad — and then stick with it,” Ford said.
When asked how she hopes the Ashland community will grow in its next 100 years, Ford said she leaves that up to future generations, referring to a favorite quote from George Bernard Shaw:
“I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live.
“I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no ‘brief candle’ for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.”
