Wendell Ford

Floyd “Wendell” Ford was born in Edmore, Michigan on March 17, 1924 where his father Paul Ford, was teaching at Cedar Lake Academy. The family moved to Nevada Iowa that summer when his father accepted a teaching position at Oak Park Academy. While in Nevada, his brothers Dwain and Cleo were born. In 1934 the family moved to Hutchinson, Minnesota where his father taught at Maplewood Academy for the next 10 years and where his other 3 brothers Glee, Eldon & Gary were born.

Wendell graduated from Maplewood Academy at the age of 17 on May 18, 1941. He took pre-med at Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) in Berrien Springs, Michigan and finished the summer of 1943 by taking summer school. He then attended Loma Linda University for his medical training, his class was one of the accelerated classes that would finish with no summer breaks in 3 years.

During his first year in medical school the US Army recruited Wendell and most of his classmates into military service. Between his sophomore and junior year he and Carole Furber of Portland Oregon were married. His medical training was completed in1946. His one year internship was completed at St. Josephs Hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Wendell and Carole’s first son, Alan was born on Carole’s birthday in Minneapolis in 1947.

In July of 1947 he spent a month in medical field service training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, then completed 4 months X-Ray training at Percy Jones General Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan.

Finally he received his orders to report to Waltham, Massachusetts. This was good news as the assignment would be near Wendell’s parent’s home. They arrived, surprising his parents the day before Thanksgiving. After celebrating their good fortune on Thanksgiving Day he reported for duty the next day to find that his orders had been changed due to an overseas alert and he was now to be sent to Trieste, Italy. He was to report there in February 1948. After saying goodbye to Carole, now expecting their 2nd baby, and sending her back to her family in Portland, he traveled to Italy. There he served as head of Obstetrics Dept. and later chief of X-Ray. His 2 years of service completed in June 1949.

After Wendell arrived in Portland in July, meeting his 15 month old daughter Kathy for the first time, he moved the family to the small western Nebraska town of Hemmingford, where he practiced for 8 years. Here daughter Cheri and son Greg were born. After his partner left to take a residency he practiced alone in Hemmingford for 5 years. He then briefly joined a partnership in Minnesota. But when his friend Dr. Milton Johnson invited him to join his practice, Wendell moved the family to Hermiston, Oregon in 1960 where they practiced together for 29 years. While in Hermiston another daughter, Wendy was born in 1964. He retired from practice in 1989 at the age of 65.

In 1992 Wendell and Carole moved to Sandpoint, ID to be near their son Alan’s family. They lived there for 12 years. After Alan’s family moved away from Sandpoint they decided to move again in January 2005 to be near children and grandchildren, this time to Longview WA. There they lived until moving to Cherrywood Village Retirement Center in Portland in 2012. Wendell passed away at home on January 31, 2018.

He is survived, by his wife Carole, sons Alan & Greg, daughters Kathy, Cheri, & Wendy, brothers Dwain, Cleo, Glee and Eldon. Grand children, Rohn, Tom, Rob, Joel, Steve, Margo, Natalie, Ryan, & Kevin, great grandchildren, Ben, Diana, Nic, Payton, Brady, Sophia, Luke, Alice, Clara, Nash, Tommy, & Max and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceeded in death by his brother Gary, nephew Michael and son-in-law Marc.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Wendell's name may be made to one of the following:

3ABN

http://3abn.org/

Project Patch

http://www.projectpatch.org/

American Humane Society

https://www.americanhumane.org/