About Gordon B. Ford

Gordon B. Ford
1913 - 2005

Gordon B. Ford graduated from the Bowling Green College of Commerce (BU) in 1934, a time of uncertainty and depression. However, the young accountant used his skills, training, and determination to become a founding partner in the Louisville accounting firm of Yeager, Ford and Warren.

The firm merged with Coopers & Lybrand, which later merged with Price Waterhouse to become PricewaterhouseCoopers – one of the largest accounting firms in the country. Mr. Ford retired as a partner and lived in Louisville and Village of Golf, Florida, until his death in 2005.

Mr. Ford was a native of Greenville, Kentucky, and came to BU, the forerunner of WKU’s business college, through the hard work and determination of his mother, Mattie Newman Ford. He said she worked his way through college as a school teacher, underscoring the importance the Ford family placed on education and the long history the family has had with WKU. Mrs. Ford received a teaching certificate from Western in 1909.

In December, 1998, Mr. Ford honored his mother and WKU when he announced a $10.6 million gift commitment to the University, which was the largest single gift in the school’s history at that time. The gift created the Gordon Ford Dean’s Fund for Excellence and the Mattie Newman Ford Professor of Entrepreneurship. In a show of appreciation, WKU renamed the college the Gordon Ford College of Business.