Kent Ford Retires
Kent Ford, editor at the Missouri Press Association, was honored Thursday, April 3 during a retirement party at the Missouri Press Association office in Columbia. Ford has served the association for 25 years. A photo album can be found on the MPA Facebook page: www.facebook.com/pages/Missouri-Press-Association/154375874617599.
Ford joined the staff of Missouri Press Association in June 1989. His editorial duties include writing and all pre-press production of the monthly Missouri Press News magazine, preparing news releases, publishing the Missouri Press Bulletin for association members, and more.
Reflecting about retirement, Ford said, smiling, "I’ve had one job or another since I was 12 years old. It’s time I didn’t have a job." After a long career in journalism, his advice to those entering the field is, "Be thorough and be fair. You have to ask all the questions, not just the ones you want to write about."
Ford is a 1974 graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. A native of Iowa, Ford was a general assignment reporter at the Daily American Republic in Poplar Bluff from 1974 to 1980. He was city editor from 1980-1981 of the Nonpareil in Council Bluffs, Iowa. He then bought the Times Observer, a weekly newspaper in Oregon, Mo. He and his wife, Sharon, published that paper until selling it in 1989.
After attending two years of college, Ford served in the U.S. Navy November 1968 to August 1972 as an aircraft electronic weapons delivery systems technician, deploying to the Tonkin Gulf off Vietnam. After his honorable discharge, he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
Ford and his wife, Sharon, have two grown children: a daughter, Katie and a son, Justin. Sharon is the nursing standards coordinator at Boone Hospital Center.
Ford has served as Past President, South Holt Jaycees (Oregon, Mo.); Past President, Northwest Missouri Press Association; Past President, KidsFirst Optimist Club of Columbia; Past President, Columbia Toastmasters. He also has served as a volunteer with the offenders’ Toastmasters Club at Moberly Correctional Center.
Ford enjoys golf, various outdoor activities and reading.
One of his favorite quotes is "Accuracy without truth is just good stenography."