Donald H. Ford

1926 - 2023

Donald H. Ford
August 15, 1926 - May 8, 2023
State College, Pennsylvania - Dr. Donald H. Ford, the psychologist and academic administrator who envisioned the multidisciplinary approach to human development that led to the founding of Pennsylvania State University's College of Health and Human Development, died on May 8, 2023, surrounded by family in his State College home. He was 96.
On campus, students may know him as the namesake of the Ford Building, or depending on their major, as the author of their dense textbook, of which he has written six.
Amongst friends and family, who called him Don, he was tirelessly curious about the world, eager to hear people's stories and share relevant anecdotes from his own life. He often found a way to tie everything back to living systems theory, a conceptual framework that shaped much of his career.
In layman's terms, the theory views all levels of life, from the atomic to the universal, as interconnected and working together to survive.
But Don believed there was more to life than survival. That as a species we had moved beyond the point of being subservient to ungovernable forces determining our destiny and environment. Humans had the agency to shape their own lives and the world around them.
For him, that assumption carried both hope and dilemma: "The hope that it may not be necessary for anyone to live in poverty, loneliness, unhappiness, pain, and fear; and the dilemma of deciding what goals we shall seek, how to give our lives significance and satisfaction beyond biological survival," he said at the start of his ten-year term as the inaugural dean of the then-named College of Human Development.
His optimism for human potential stemmed from his own personal experience. Despite his modest beginnings, he always set his goals high, and out of sheer will, often exceeded his aim.
Don was born on August 15, 1926, in Sioux City, Iowa. His father and mother, Herb and Esther, soon moved the family to Marysville, Kansas, where he grew up with his three older sisters, and where members of his extended family still call home. He worked in his family garden from a young age and later took a job at a soda shop, where he fell hard for his favorite patron, Carol Clark. He took her swing dancing to big band concerts and, eventually, won her heart.
World War II interrupted their courtship and he joined the U.S. Army Air Force, stationed at Roswell Army Air Field, New Mexico, where he saw firsthand the dawn of nuclear weapons and the potential for human ingenuity to not only lift us up but destroy us.
After the war ended in 1945, Don became the first person in his family to attend college, graduating from Kansas State University with an undergraduate degree in Engineering. In addition to his studies, he was active in student affairs, serving as president of the undergraduate student council. In that role he worked closely with University President Milton Eisenhower who became a lifelong friend and mentor both at K-State and later when he served as President of Penn State.
On the day of his graduation, Don married his favorite dance partner, Carol, in Topeka, Kansas.
They would remain at Kansas State while he finished his master's degree in psychology. In 1952, the Fords moved to State College, Pennsylvania, where Don began his doctoral program at Penn State. They were quick to embrace the "Happy Valley" community and build a life there together.
After receiving his Ph.D., Don served in various roles within Penn State's administration. He was tapped to join a task force, appointed by University President Eric Walker, to envision what Penn State should look like by the end of the 20th century. One of the recommendations was the creation of a new multidisciplinary college. "The exciting challenge of this new college lies in the opportunity to apply the exploding knowledge from psychology, sociology, biology, and other disciplines to the shaping of a more desirable social environment and more satisfying and constructive individual lives," Don said at the time.
He served as the founding dean of that college from 1967 to 1977. After his ten-year term, he stepped down and returned to the classroom. Don had an insatiable passion for research and was eager to share his excitement with like-minded students and faculty. He would invite them into his home to debate complex ideas. Occasionally, he would have fun conducting micro-experiments on his family members who were often unwitting participants.
Between 1951 and 1962, the Fords had four sons: Russell, Douglas, Martin, and Cameron. They all followed in their father's footsteps by going on to college, earning degrees, and meeting the women they would marry. Finally, Don and Carol had some "daughters."
It wasn't long before their sons started their own families. Don and Carol became PopPop and Kiki to twelve grandchildren, and later, fifteen great-grandchildren.
Christmases were a raucous affair. The grandchildren would sneak into his supply of homemade toffee and Don would jump out and scare them away with a gruff, "You dirty dogs!" chasing them away with glee.
He took his responsibilities as patriarch seriously and was known to sit down with his grandchildren before weddings and other relationship milestones. "It's important to find that partner, where you become witnesses to each other's lives," he said.
No one was a better witness than his wife, Carol. She stood by him over six decades and more than four career paths at Penn State while raising a family, pursuing her musical and artistic talents, and leading fundraisers and events in the community. When she started her 10-year battle with Alzheimer's, the love and strength of their partnership motivated Don to put his life's work studying human development into creating an in-home program that, as he put it, would focus on her as "a person, and not a patient." For most of those years, she couldn't walk, and could barely stand. But when Don held Carol in his arms, she could still dance. They danced together every day until the day she died in 2011. She was 83.
After her death, Don partnered for two years with Penn State's College of Nursing Sciences to explore ways to apply what he learned to programs in elder care. This led to the creation of the globally-recognized program for Person-Centered Living Systems of Care in the Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence.
He applied these principles to his own life in his final years. Reaching back into his own history, he recalled his fondness for planting in the family garden. As early as seven years old he would work the soil, sow the seeds, and sell the fruits of his labor from the basket of his bicycle.
So in his 90s, he put his hands back into the earth and learned new approaches to gardening from the multiple generations of Penn State Master Gardeners in his family. For Don, it was never too late to develop new skills and shape his own life and the world around him.
Today he is survived by an ever-growing family, generations of students and colleagues, and a universe of interconnected living systems.
He will be missed and remembered by many. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a gift in Dr. Donald H. Ford's honor to the Program for Person-Centered Living Systems of Care in the Penn State Ross and Carol Nese College of Nursing, 100 Nursing Sciences Building, University Park, PA 16802. raise.psu.edu/donford