Photo courtesy GVSU
ALLENDALE, Mich. (March 20, 2014) — Milton E. Ford, a faculty member at Grand Valley State University for more than 40 years, died Wednesday at the age of 72.
Ford was a liberal studies professor and the founding director of the university’s LGBT Resource Center. He joined GVSU’s faculty in 1973 and celebrated his fourth decade in December, the university said.
According to a release, Ford had been battling cancer.
The LGBT Resource Center opened in the Kirkhof Center in 2008.
“He wanted a place where students could come and feel safe,” Colette Seguin Beighley, current director of the center, said in a release. “He wanted a place where queer students could call their own. Milt cared deeply for each student, and his celebration of students’ identities was liberating for him.”
Provost Gayle R. Davis considers Ford her hero.
“His contributions to Grand Valley were enormous, and his personal characteristics and values rare,” she said.
Ford’s visitation is scheduled Monday, March 31 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Cook DeWitt Center on GVSU’s Allendale campus. A memorial is scheduled the same day at 6 p.m. at the Louis Armstrong Theater.
You can also donate to Grand Valley’s LGBT Resource Center’s Endowment Fund in his name.
