Memorial Services Held May 24 for Honored Life Director Tommy Ford
Memorial services will be held May 24 in Dallas for Honored Life Director Tommy Ford of Tommy Ford Construction, who passed away May 10. He would have been 87 in June.
Tommy had been a member of the Dallas BA since 1989. He was the recipient of both the Association’s highest award, the Hugh Prather Trophy, and the Texas Association of Builders’ Ted Schlossman Lifetime Achievement Award.
Known to be private about his successes, Tommy was honored with numerous awards for his excellence and generosity. He was a founding member and director of the Texas Builders Foundation, which provides scholarships to students who are pursuing careers as residential construction trades professionals. The Foundation honored him with its Ron Connally Award of Excellence. He also received the Texas Association of Builders’ Philanthropist of the Year award. He contributed $10,000 to the National Housing Endowment for establishment of an educational scholarship to support green building education, and contributed to the Press Club of Dallas Foundation as an underwriter of the Boone Pickens Roast, a charity fundraiser.
Tommy’s charitable accomplishments also included support of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He also worked with Dallas Fire-Rescue to donate sprinklers for low income homes, a contribution that was then matched by the Dallas BA’s Custom Builders/Remodelers Council.
Tommy was active in the home building industry at all levels. He was elected an Honored Life Director of the Dallas BA in 2000, and was also a state and national life director. He was instrumental in crafting a program for compliance with state legislated energy standards. serves on several regional and national code committees. He served for more than a decade on the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Regional Codes Coordinating Committee. This group of DFW area building officials and industry professionals compose regional amendments to ICC codes that result in codes that reflect local building practices and foster regional continuity. Tommy’s advocacy efforts on the RCCC alone saved builders thousand of dollars over the years.
Tommy got his start in the industry at age 7, cleaning up job sites for his father, a home builder in West Texas. Tommy Ford Construction was founded in 1965 in Vernon, TX. Tommy spent many years working in the oil field, but wanted to get back to what he loved, which was building homes. He began working out of his truck and took on whatever jobs he could to support his family. After several years working in Vernon and the surrounding area, he and his family moved to Amarillo in 1969. He served as president of the Texas Panhandle Builders Association in 1988.
Survivors include his wife of 66 years, Linda Ford; son Corey Ford (Becky); daughter Jana McAllister (Russell); daughter Amy Pennington (Kurt); sister Berta Gentry; seven grandchildren; and four great grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Texas Builders Foundation or the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation North Texas Chapter.
A memorial service was held May 24 at Northwest Bible Church in Dallas.