William R. Ford
Longest-serving member, Jamaica Rotary Club
COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Bill Ford, the longest-serving member of the Jamaica Rotary, is also a past president, 1975-1976, and has held every office except treasurer. He is also active in the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, and, while his daughter was a student there, he was board chair at St. Peter Claver School.
Additionally, he is one of the founders of United Black Men of Queens County, Inc. and the Association of Minority Enterprises of New York (AMENY). “I’ve been very active,” he said.
JOB: Ford, who has a degree as a dental laboratory technician from New York City Community College, helped to build a dental laboratory. “I was told I couldn’t do a certain kind of work,” he recalled.
In 1963, he joined an insurance firm; more than three decades later, he retired from Prudential. He was also a stock broker and retired in 2004.
Currently, he had his own agency, and he mentors young and old in the insurance industry.
PERSONAL: He and his wife have been married for 54 years. They have one “wonderful” daughter, her “great” husband, and two “great” grandsons, ages eight and 10. “We’re very proud of them.”
FAVORITE MEMORY: “Helping York College get built,” he said. Through the work of United Black Men and AMENY, minority construction workers were brought in to do the job. “That was an accomplishment to me,” said Ford, who also counts “getting a large insurance company to hire me in 1963” as a favorite memory.
BIGGEST CHALLENGE: “It’s the same today as when I got started,” he said. “I’m an advocate of people’s cultures being respected. [A challenge] is getting people to accept you, that you can do what you say you can do.”
INSPIRATION: “Getting the job done to show people we can do what we say we can do. You always have to prove yourself. Never, never give up.” – Tonia N. Cimino
