Hallie Edna Ford

 Obituary Hallie E. Ford 

Hallie E. Ford, age 102, died peacefully and painlessly after a brief illness on Monday, June 4, 2007, in her home at Heron Pointe Assisted Living Community in Monmouth, Oregon. Hallie was born in Red Fork, Oklahoma, American Indian Territory, on March 17, 1905, to Ethel and James Brown, the oldest of five children. As her family persevered through the Great Depression, Hallie learned the value of education, graduating from high school in Beggs, Oklahoma, followed by putting herself through East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where she earned her bachelor?s degree and teaching certificate. After teaching briefly in Oklahoma, Hallie followed her parents to Oregon where she taught in the Lebanon, Oregon, area. In 1935, she married Kenneth W. Ford and moved to Roseburg, Oregon, where she played an active role in establishing and growing Roseburg Lumber Co., currently known as Roseburg Forest Products Co. carrying on the tradition of this pioneer forest products family. While rearing her family in Roseburg, Hallie was an active leader in business and community affairs. Her volunteer work with Umpqua Valley Arts Association, Roseburg Women?s Club, city government, community hospital and the First Methodist Church of Roseburg led to her receiving the Roseburg First Citizens Award from the Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce in 1967. She moved to Salem, Oregon, in 1972, where she lived, until 2002, when she relocated to Heron Pointe in Monmouth. During this time Hallie pursued her passions for gardening and travel, and took up golf. She took pride in the fact that she once made a hole-in-one. She joined the board of the Oregon Historical Society, faithfully contributing her time and resources. Of her many life accomplishments Hallie Ford will best be remembered for her generous philanthropic support of education and the arts. Along with Kenneth, her husband of many years, she was one of the founders of the Ford Family Foundation, headquartered in Roseburg, Oregon. The Ford Opportunity Scholarship Program, that has changed many lives for the better is operated by the Foundation for single parents lacking financial resources for college, was her inspiration. To date 528 single-parent Oregonians have been named recipients of this visionary scholarship. While the Foundation, founded in 1957, by the Ford?s, confines gifts primarily to rural communities, Hallie herself was a major benefactor of many education and arts projects throughout all of Oregon and supported her high school and college alma maters in Oklahoma. Resourceful and frugal in her personal life, Hallie reserved most of her wealth to benefit others. Her reserved, deliberate and soft-spoken demeanor was a reflection of a thoughtful and compassionate life driven by a desire to be as well informed about the world as possible. She held herself and her beloved family to high intellectual and ethical standards, and was willing to help deserving individuals and organizations that did the same. A woman of few words, but great vision, Hallie was an avid reader who believed in the transformational value of art and education. She continued to take art classes well into her retirement years. In 1996, Hallie received the Governor?s Arts Award for Arts Patronage and Support of Arts Scholarship Programs. As a patron of the arts she endowed an arts education program for Umpqua Valley Arts Association in Roseburg and was the benefactor of The Hallie Ford Museum at Willamette University in Salem. She was proud to have served many years on the Board of Trustees at Willamette University, which honored her in 1994, with an honorary doctorate. An additional gift from Hallie to Willamette University last year will ensure the construction of Ford Hall for academic instruction to include digital art and film studies. Just before her death, acting out of a desire to see a globally recognized center for visual art and design education located in Oregon, Hallie endowed the Ford Institute for Visional Education at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, the largest donation to an arts institution in Oregon history. Never one to forget her roots and humble Oklahoma beginnings, Hallie partnered with her alma mater, East Central University (ECU) in Ada, Oklahoma to build the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center scheduled to open in December of this year. She also established two endowed scholarship programs for fine arts students at ECU where she was named Alumna of the Year in 1996 and the first recipient of ?The Hallie Brown Ford Distinguished Award for Philanthropy? in 2007. Hallie?s deep abiding love of her family, and respect for family life, formed the basis for her last philanthropic gift. The Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families will establish the only institution of its kind in Oregon at Oregon State University in Corvallis. The gift will provide funds for a building and endowed directorship to focus on lifespan and preventative approaches to child and family health. As Hallie said on a number of occasions to gatherings of Ford Family Foundation scholarship recipients, ?It?s not what you have, but what you give to your family, your community, and your country.? For someone who sought to avoid recognition for her philanthropy and maintain a life of privacy, she would have been embarrassed to see her legacy spelled out as it is here. But as the Ford Family Foundation?s scholarship office has written to those same scholarship recipients, ?While Mrs. Ford shared and will continue to share, a gift of education with each of you, her hope would be for you to carry on her legacy.? Hallie Ford is survived by her two children, Carmen Ford Phillips of Monmouth and Allyn Ford of Roseburg; six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. At Hallie?s request, there will be no memorial service. A family celebration will be observed. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made to Umpqua Valley Arts Association, 1624 W Harvard Ave., Roseburg, OR 97470.