Larry R. Ford

Background

Larry R. Ford was born on December 11, 1943, in Enid, Oklahoma, United States. He was the son of Harry Ford and Rachel Brill. He grew up in Columbus, Ohio, United States.

Education

In 1965 Larry R. Ford received a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio State University. In 1967 he obtained a Master of Arts degree from this university. In 1970 Ford gained a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Oregon.

Career

From 1970 to 1974 Larry R. Ford was an assistant professor at San Diego State University, an associate professor from 1974 to 1977, and was appointed a professor of geography in 1977. In 2000 he was a holder of Benjamin and Louise Carroll Revolving Endowed Chair of Urban Studies there. Besides, Ford served as a president of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers from 1982 to 1983, as an Association of American Geographers Regional Councillor, and as a member of the American Geographical Society Council (from 1996 to 2003 and from 2004 to 2009). He also served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Geography and the Geographical Review.

His interests included urban geography, comparative urbanization, urban form and design, cultural meanings of urban space, downtown revitalization, and historic preservation. He was a guest lecturer at the United States institutions, including Arizona State University, the University of Minnesota, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Louisiana State University, South Dakota State University, and Vassar College, and in England at the University of Leeds.

He was a contributor to books, including Our Changing Cities (1991); North America: Lands and People (1994); Place, Power; Situation, and Spectacle: A Geography of Film (1994); and Imaging the City (2001). He was also a contributor of more than fifty articles and reviews to periodicals, including Urban Geography, the Journal of Architectural and Planning Research, the Journal of San Diego History, Landscape, Social Education, California Geographer, Environmental Review, and Oregon Geographer.

Known as an innovative thinker and a persuasive writer, he authored the acclaimed books, Cities and Buildings: Skyscrapers, Skidrows, and Suburbs (1994) and America’s New Downtowns: Reinvention and Revitalization (2003), as well as the thought-provoking The Spaces Between Buildings (2000), which examined ordinary and often unnoticed features of the urban landscape such as alleys, driveways, and other recesses and suppressed cultural spaces. More recently, Ford wrote Metropolitan San Diego (2004) and My Kind of Suburb: the Inter-War Years in California (forthcoming from The Center for American Places).

Achievements

• Larry R. Ford is best remembered as a nationally known expert on urban development. He was presented with a Distinguished Service Award from the Historical Site Board of the City of San Diego in 1981; a Distinguished Teacher Award from the National Council for Geographic Education in 1985; and a Distinguished Service Award from the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers in 1995. A recent poll of architects and planners ranked him among the world’s top 100 urban thinkers. The Association of Pacific Coast Geographers has established a scholarship fund in Ford’s name.

Works

More photos

• book

  • America's New Downtowns: Revitalization or Reinvention?

    (What makes a good downtown, and why? Are today's downtown...)

    2003
  • Cities and Buildings: Skyscrapers, Skid Rows, and Suburbs

    (In this text, the author offers an account of the relatio...)

    1994
  • Metropolitan San Diego: How Geography and Lifestyle Shape a New Urban Environment

    (The San Diego of popular imagination is a lotus land of s...)

    2005
  • The Spaces Between Buildings

    (Gates and fences, sidewalks and driveways, alleys, and pa...)

    2000
  • Southern California Extended 1992

Membership

Larry R. Ford was a member of the Association of American Geographers, the American Geographical Society, the National Council for Geographic Education, the Urban Affairs Association, the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers, the California Geographical Society, Save Our Heritage, Beta Gamma Sigma, Phi Eta Sigma, Lambda Alpha.

Personality

Larry R. Ford enjoyed being an urban wanderer. He traveled extensively, exploring the nooks and crannies of cities throughout the world and deciphering the history and significance of details and elements that make up a neighborhood. As a boy in Ohio, he loved surveying Columbus from atop the city’s tallest skyscraper.

Quotes from others about the person

• "Larry R. Ford played an important role in preserving Belmont Park," said friend and colleague Molly McClain. "His work was really important for San Diego history. He mapped the city geographically like no one else has."

Connections

In 1966 Larry R. Ford married Jan.

Father:

Harry Ford

Mother:

Rachel Brill

Spouse:

Jan Ford

Friend:

Allen Hope

Allen Hope is a professor at San Diego State University.

Friend:

Molly McClain

References

• Contemporary Authors
  2004