Ford Plaza dedicated to "man of peace and action"

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by Tom Uribes

A glimpse of the future - a serene, inspiring setting on campus - was presented May 4 when the Richard D. Ford Plaza in the university's Peace Garden was formally dedicated to the memory of the late Fresno State dean.

On hand for the ceremony were Ford's widow, Nancy, who is a library assistant in the acquisitions office of the Henry Madden Library, and their two children, Robin and Rich.

Campus architect Robert Boro, who designed the new plaza that is scheduled for completion by 2001, displayed renderings of the Peace Garden upgrade and the Ford Plaza located in the garden's center.

"This plaza represents the center of peace and, with its shade trees and cobbled paving, it will create a tranquil sense of place," Boro said.

Boro, who was among several speakers at the dedication ceremony, described Ford as a lifelong advocate for peace and one of the creators of the Peace Garden, which contains monuments to Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez.

Retiring university counselor Felton Burns, a longtime friend of Ford, said,"Richard Ford was a promoter of peace for the university and the greater community." Burns told the nearly 200 spectators, "He was proactive for peace, not just a reactor. He was an advocate for racial harmony in academia."

Ford's children thanked the university community on behalf of their mother. "My father believed in the dignity of each person," Robin Ford said. "I am proud he will be remembered as someone who cared for others, and for his belief that true peace can only be achieved through respect for others."

She said her father subscribed to a quote by Max Lerner, a Russian journalist: "You may call for peace as loud as you wish, but where there is no brotherhood, there can, in the end, be no peace."

Ford's son, Rich, noted that the plaza will not only honor Ford and the values he held, but fittingly reflects the late dean's own botanical inclinations. "Someone must have known about my dad's green thumb," he said.