Clyde W. Ford

Background

Clyde W. Ford was born in 1951 in New York City, New York, United States. He is the son of John Stanley and Vivian Ford. He has younger sister Claudia J. Ford.

Education

Clyde W. Ford graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history and mathematics from Wesleyan University in 1971. After six years working, in 1977 he returned to school, enrolling at the University of Western States (formerly Western States Chiropractic College) in Portland, Oregon. He received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1980. Then he completed his training in psychotherapy at the Synthesis Education Foundation of Winchester and the Psychosynthesis Institute of New York.

Career

Clyde W. Ford worked from 1971 till 1977 as a systems engineer with the IBM Corporation after receiving his bachelor's degree until he left to attend the University of Western States. After being granted his doctorate, he moved to Richmond, Virginia and then Bellingham, Washington, and was in private practice as a chiropractor and psychotherapist. He has professional training in psychotherapy from the Synthesis Education Foundation of Winchester, Massachusetts and the Psychosynthesis Institute of New York. He conducts workshops and seminars around the country. In 1987 he founded ISTAR, the Institute for Somatosynthesis Training and Research, to continue the work presented in Where Healing Waters Meet.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, Ford’s focus shifted to the use of mythology in healing. Ford sought out African authors and drew on his own travels in West Africa in order to discover ancient myths and understand how they might be beneficial to the healing process in contemporary societies. He also was president of The Foundation for the Advancement of Chiropractic Research.

Clyde W. Ford’s writing career has focused on the many aspects of psychic healing. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he wrote about healing therapy; in the mid-1990s he concentrated on the healing of racial wounds. In 1989 Ford wrote his first book, Where Healing Waters Meet, about his many years of experience working with the healing of emotional wounds through touch and movement therapy, rather than talk therapy. That was followed in 1993 by Compassionate Touch, a book which amplified these themes and documented Ford's work with adult survivors of sexual abuse, mainly women. In 1999 he wrote The Hero with an African Face, a book about how myths heal psychic wounds. In the early 2000's Clyde began writing fiction.

Besides exploring healing issues in books and on the lecture circuit, he has conducted seminars and has written numerous articles for Massage Magazine, Massage Therapy Journal, and Chiropractic Economics. Clyde has taught a wide variety of subjects at institutions around the country and in Europe including Swahili at Columbia University, Mathematics at the State University of New York, and African American History at Western Washington University. As a featured guest, Clyde has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to discuss his writing and his work in human rights; on New Dimensions, the National Public Radio program hosted by Michael Toms; and on more than 150 radio and television programs across the nation. His numerous articles and interviews have appeared in professional journals, newspapers, magazines, and on the Internet.

In 2005, after participating in "Books and Blues," a joint effort by authors and Mississippi Delta bluesmen and women for Hurricane Katrina relief, Ford was invited to be a founding member of the SonEdna Foundation, established by Morgan Freeman and his then-wife, Myrna Colley-Lee. During his time with Sonenda, Ford participated as an author in many literary salons held by the foundation and worked with individuals such as playwright Ifa Bayeza, Pamela Poitier, Ruby Dee, Roscoe Orman, Alfre Woodard, Lerone Bennett, Karen Baxter, and many others to present programs for the Delta community.

Clyde Ford's recent book is Think Black (2019), an examination of a father-son relationship that traces Ford's story as a system engineer at IBM, and his father's life as the first Black software engineer hired by Big Blue. The story is both a memoir and an exploration of the slow change in race relations, compared with the lightning speed of change in technology. Ford is a 2019/2020 fellow of Humanities Washington, a Washington State affiliate of the National Endowment for the Arts. He's a member of the agency's speaker's bureau and conducts numerous programs around Washington State, entitled, "Let's Talk About Race: How to have a difficult conversation about an important topic."

Achievements

• In 1991 East West magazine recognized Ford’s work as one of the 20 trends reshaping society. Ford received the 2006 Zora Neale Hurston-Richard Wright Foundation Literary Award for The Long Mile, 2006 Independent Publisher Book Award, and 2007 Mayor's Arts Award in Literature. He was named a "Literary Lion" by the King County Library System in 2006, 2007, 2008, and for 2019/2020. He was voted "Best Writer of Bellingham, Washington" in 2006 and 2007 by readers of the Cascadia Weekly.

Works

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  • Red Herring

    (When an ex-Coast Guard officer, turned private investigat...)

    2005
  • We Can All Get Along: 50 Steps You Can Take to Help End Racism

    (The fifty steps in this thought-provoking guidebook help ...)

    1994
  • The Hero with an African Face: Mythic Wisdom of Traditional Africa

    (In this remarkable book, Clyde Ford restores to us the lo...)

    1999
  • The Long Mile

    (Framed for murder during a failed drug bust, former NYPD ...)

    2005
  • Whiskey Gulf

    (After a sailboat drifts into a ''live-fire'' naval exerci...)

    2009
  • Compassionate Touch: The Body's Role in Emotional Healing and Recovery

    (Through his treatment of many men and women as a chiropra...)

    1993
  • Precious Cargo

    (Charlie Noble, former-Coast-Guard-officer-turned-marine-P...)

    2006
  • Boat Green: 50 Steps Boaters Can Take to Save Our Waters

    (Recreational boating is a pastime enjoyed by millions. Ye...)

    2008
  • Deuce's Wild

    (John Shannon's son J. J. is a huge fan of hip-hop artist ...)

    2006
  • Think Black: A Memoir

    (In 1947, Thomas J. Watson set out to find the best and br...)

    2019

Views

Quotations: "The myth is eternal truth. Not a factual truth, but an eternal truth that deals with your inner reality."

"When we’re dealing with an issue like racism, so many people feel it’s a daunting issue and that they can’t do anything. A certain paralysis sets in. But anybody and everybody can make a difference."

"If we believe change is possible, then we can take the steps - however small they might be - toward making that change happen."

"The meaning of my own life is based in the meaning of those who have gone before. The ancestors are there, still informing, still influencing us."

Membership

Clyde W. Ford was a co-founder of the Northern Puget Sound region of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and founder of Institute of the Black World.

Personality

Clyde W. Ford believes in heroes. The heroes, not only of African myths but that live in each of us always. He is also a great lover of nature.

Interests

• backpacking, cruising

Connections

Father:

John Stanley Ford

John Ford was the first African-American engineer to work for IBM.

Mother:

Vivian Ford

Vivian Ford taught school and directed an early childhood education program in California.

Sister:

Claudia J. Ford

Claudia Ford has enjoyed a career in international management, development and women’s health. She teaches ethnobotany, indigenous knowledge, gender studies, international business, environmental justice, and environmental literature in classrooms and workshops. She is principal investigator for an agro-ecology program and director of an artists’ residency program on 136 acres of productive farmland in New England that links ecology, social systems and the arts with agriculture with the goal of healthy food and farming communities.