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Obituary of John Ambrose Ford John Ambrose Ford, of Pawleys Island, South Carolina, died on August 7, 2008, in the Intensive Care Unit of Georgetown Hospital. He is survived by his wife, Anna Maria Ford, teacher of English, ESL, French, and Spanish at Howard Adult Education Center in Georgetown County survives him. They first met in 1968 at Chrysler's World Headquarters in Highland Park, Michigan, while he was vice president of public relations and she was contracted, under the joint auspices of Chrysler's Academic Affairs Division and Highland Park Community College, to develop French and Spanish programs for the corporation's top level executives. He remained her student in the French program for nine consecutive years until he took an early retirement and left Michigan. Although their paths diverged, they remained friends despite the distance and circumstances separating them, reconnected in 1996, and married in 1997. Son of John A. Ford and Mabelle Loomis Ford, he was one of ten children born to this devoted couple in New Haven, Connecticut. He was born on June 21, 1920, the oldest of five boys in the family, with five sisters all older than he. He received a scholarship to Yale College in New Haven and graduated from there in 1941 at age twenty. Early in 1942, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, and served for more than four years as combat intelligence staff officer during which time he received various decorations and citations: American Theater Service Medal, Asiatic Pacific Theater Service Medal, and World War II Victory Medal. He left the service in 1946 with the rank of captain after an extended tour of duty in the South Pacific Okinawa, Japan; Guam; Saipan. Following the war, he began graduate studies at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, receiving an M. A. in journalism in 1948, and continued to pursue a Ph.D. in English. During his years at Iowa, he taught full time: first, communication skills; then, English; and, finally, journalism. There, he met his first wife, the mother of his six children whom he loved very much and of whom he was extremely proud. Just before completing his Ph.D. requirements, he accepted an offer from Pillsbury Mills, headquartered in Minneapolis, to join that company as editorial director in 1953. Five years later, in 1958, he became public relations director for American Cyanamid Co. in New York City. In 1963, he joined Chrysler Corporation as vice president of public relations, the first individual to hold that post. He later was promoted first to vice president for administration and then, later, to executive vice president for administration. At the close of 1975, he retired from Chrysler. After two years of retirement, he accepted an offer from Hill & Knowlton, the largest public relations and communications company in the country, at that time, to become a senior vice president and director of their Dallas office. In 1978, he was named managing director of the South/Southwest region of that company. He retired again in 1985 and moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where he could pursue his lifelong love of sailing. Mr. Ford has been active in a number of civic, professional, and industry groups, including the Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association, where he chaired the public relations committee, the Public Relations Society of America, and the University of Detroit public relations advisory committee. He also served as vice chairman of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce. Throughout his life, a member and habitué of country clubs, he belonged to quite a few wherever his professional journey took him: Yale Country Club in New Haven, Connecticut; Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield Hills and Detroit Athletic Club, both in Michigan; Burnt Store Country Club in Punta Gorda, Florida; Northwood Country Club in Dallas, Texas; and, finally, locally, the River Club and Litchfield Country Club in Pawleys Island. He also enjoyed membership in the Yale Cl