Ford was gra­dua­ted from Har­vard Uni­ver­sity at the age of twenty. Ten years later, three years after his gra­dua­tion from the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he came into pro­mi­nence through his ap­point­ment as United Sta­tes de­le­gate to the In­ter­na­tio­nal Hou­sing Con­gress in Vi­enna. Upon his re­turn to New York, he was made con­sul­tant en­gi­neer to the Com­mit­tee on City Plan­ning of the Board of Esti­ma­tes and Ap­point­ment and to the Com­mis­sion on Buil­ding Districts and Re­stric­tions of New York. Still later he be­came ad­vi­sor on the Rus­sell Sage Foun­da­tion Plan of New York and its En­vi­rons. When Ame­rica en­t­e­red World War I, he vol­un­te­e­red his ser­vices to the Ame­ri­can Red Cross and or­ga­ni­zed the Re­con­struc­tion Bu­reau. After the de­mo­bi­liza­t­ion of the Ame­ri­can Red Cross, his ser­vices were en­ga­ged by a phil­an­thro­pic French or­ga­niza­t­ion, La Re­nais­sance des Cites. When com­pe­ti­tion among French ar­chi­tects be­came so keen that a choice was dif­fi­cult, the go­vern­ment cal­led in Mr. Ford. Rheims, re­built, stands as a me­mo­rial to his work. Upon his re­turn to Ame­rica, he de­vo­ted him­s­elf to the re­zo­n­ing of New York. He be­came city plan­ning ad­vi­ser to the Se­cretary of War and to the Re­gio­nal Plan As­so­cia­tion, of which he was ap­poin­ted ge­ne­ral di­rec­tor this year. He was also pre­si­dent of the Fe­dera­ted Na­tio­nal So­cie­ties on Plan­ning and Parks and past pre­si­dent of the Na­tio­nal Con­fe­rence on City Plan­ning and of the Ame­ri­can City Plan­ning In­sti­tute. He had acted as con­sul­tant en­gi­neer to more than one hund­red city plan­ning com­mis­si­ons in thirty Ame­ri­can ci­ties. The French Go­vern­ment made him Che­va­lier of the Le­gion of Honor for his ad­vi­sory work in the re­plan­ning of Rheims. He was a mem­ber of the Ame­ri­can In­sti­tute of Ar­chi­tects, New York So­ciete des Ar­chi­tec­tes De­plo­mes, and Har­vard Club of New York.