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Dr. David Leon Ford. Jr. , 1969, 1972 Retires

For 42 years, Dr. David Ford, Jr. spent his career as a business school professor at what is now the Jindal School of Management at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is a Professor of Organizational Studies, Strategy, and International Management. On August 31, 2017, he plans to retire. However, the university is honoring him with a celebration on Tuesday, May 2nd. Throughout his career, he has helped a few thousand Undergraduate, Graduate, and PhD business students obtain their degrees. His passion is research. He has written numerous articles on such topics as Diversity, Theory, Group Dynamics and Intergroup Processes, Global Team Leadership and Culture that have been published in minor and major business journals. He has also written a few books.

For twenty- years, he was the only African- American professor at the UT Dallas business school, where there are now four. He worked diligently to recruit more African-American professors and students by serving on several of the school’s student and faculty recruitment committees. He has served on the university’s Diversity Committee. He often attends business conferences, such as the Academy of Management and the Eastern Academy of Management conferences in the USA and other countries, where he made presentations, reviewed presentations, chaired programs, and recruited students and faculty. One of his major accomplishments is his leadership involvement with the Management Faculty of Color and the PhD Project, organizations headquartered Chicago that have increased the number of African-Americans and other non-represented minorities with PhD degrees in business from 297 when started in 1994 to over 1300 today. In 2015, he was awarded with the PhD Project’s Hall of Fame award.

Dr. Ford has been and is still a member where he held various leadership positions of several business and professional organizations, such as the Academy of Management, the Eastern Academy of Management, Association of Social and Behavioral Scientists, National Black MBA, National Black Public Administrators, One Hundred Black Men, NTL Institute, Symlog Consulting Group, INFORMS, Management Faculty of Color, PhD Project, Institute of Certified Professional Managers, the Family Restoration Institute (Life Languages), and the Society of International Business Fellows. He serves on the usher board and sings in the I.B. Foote men choir at Hamilton Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. He was a chartered member of the Mu Omicron chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity at Iowa State University. He is a member of the Theta Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi in Dallas and was a charter member of the Alpha Iota Iota member of the fraternity in North Dallas.

In addition to the PhD’s Hall of Fame award, he has received numerous other awards and recognitions, including the Iowa State Outstanding Young Alumnus Award, The University of Wisconsin Distinguished Service Citation, The National Black MBA Certificate of Excellence, and the International African Business Development International Conference Best Paper Award.

Dr. Ford is a native of Fort Worth, Texas, who graduated Magna Cum Laude from I.M. Terrell high school. He obtained his B.S. degree in Engineering from Iowa State University, and his Masters and PhD degrees in Business from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is married to Jacqueline Ford, who often travels with and accompanies him on work assignments. They have two adult sons, Jolm B. Adams in Washington, D.C. and David Ford, III in Los Angeles, California. They have one grandson, Jolm M. Adams.

Submitted by Jacqueline Ford

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