- Date Of Birth: May 9, 1910
- Date Of Death: June 3, 2009
- State: Michigan
Franklin E. Ford, 99, of Midland died Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at Brian’s House in Bay City.He was born May 9, 1910 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts to the late Franklin E. Ford and Charlotte Daily Ford. He was the 9th generation of his English Ancestor, Andrew Ford, who immigrated to America in 1638. His family genealogy can also be traced to John and Priscilla Alden who came to America on the Mayflower in 1620.Franklin E. Ford graduated from Pittsfield High School in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in 1928. He then worked as a tool and die apprentice for three years at the General Electric Company in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.
Due to his older sister’s persistent encouragement to pursue a college education, Franklin moved out to the Midwest and enrolled as an engineering student at Tri-State University in Angola, Indiana in 1931. He successfully completed his B.S. Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tri-State University in 1933 and completed a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, 1934. While a graduate student at the University of Michigan Engineering School, he was awarded membership in the Iota Alpha Honorary Engineering Society.Upon earning his graduate degree, Franklin moved to Midland in 1934 to begin a 41 year career at Dow Chemical Company. Three years later Franklin married Margaret Adeline Chasey from Angola, Indiana on June 26, 1937.
Together they built their first home at 213 W. Nelson Street where they raised their three children-Lurinda, Janet and Barbara. In 1958, they moved to their second home at 1309 W. St. Andrews Road where they remained until they moved to Independence Village in 1998. After his wife, Margaret died in 2003; Franklin continued to live in Midland, moving to Bickford Cottage in 2007.Franklins employment at the Dow Chemical Company was challenging, productive and successful. Starting in the Physical Research Laboratory, he assisted in the design and construction of Dow’s first commercial ethylene plant. During this time, Dow Chemical Company was an early pioneer in the production of ethylene, and its by-products which were propylene and butadiene. Great quantities of high purity butadiene were made in this plant and shipped to rubber companies throughout the United States who were experimenting with synthetic rubber formations.
These experiments subsequently relieved the critical rubber shortage during WWII when the Japanese had cut off all supplies of natural rubber to the United States. For the next 25 years, Franklin was superintendent of this ethylene plant, which was the worlds first commercial ethylene plant.In 1961-1966, Franklin Ford worked on project management assignments in the Engineering and Construction Department of the Dow Chemical Company. Then from 1966 to retirement in 1975, Franklin Ford became Senior Process Specialist at the Dow Chemical plant. After retirement in 1975, Franklin served as an Adjunct Professor at Saginaw Valley State University where he taught solar energy and energy conservation to the college students. He continued to hold his life memberships in the American Chemical Society and the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.
He was also a life-long member of First United Methodist Church, having served as Chairman of the Administrative Board and as a member of First United Methodist Church Building Committee for the current church.In addition to Franklin’s involvement in these organizations, he also held life memberships in the Midland Kiwanis Club of which he was a past President, the Centre Lodge #273 Free and Accepted Masons of which he was a Past Master and a member of the Order of Eastern Star. As a member of the Scottish Rite Consistory, he was a Thirty-Second Degree Mason.Survivors of Franklin Ford’s family are his three daughters, Lurinda (Fred) Fletcher of Midland, Janet (Douglas) Kroon of Midland and Barbara (Ken) Kronholz of Tallahassee, Florida; five grandchildren, Jonathan (Angie) Eisenzopf, Jeremy (Kristy) Eisenzopf, Kristina Kroon, Peter Kroon and Julia Kronholz; and four great grandchildren, David, Elaina, Aaron and Hannah Eisenzopf.
