Los
Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM JOSEPH FORD
The late W. Joseph Ford, an active
and successful member of the Los Angeles bar for about a third of a century,
was widely recognized as an attorney of marked ability and enjoyed an enviable
reputation among his professional colleagues and contemporaries. He was born in Oakland, California, August 2,
1877, son of John J. and Mary B. (Mahoney) Ford. His father, a native of Lowell,
Massachusetts, came to California in 1875.
His mother, Mary B. (Mahoney) Ford, was born in Oakland, California,
daughter of Dennis E. Mahoney, one of the early California pioneers.
W. Joseph Ford was reared in Los
Angeles, attending the public schools and the Los Angeles high school, and
continued his studies at the University of California during the years 1897 and
1898, leaving in that year to participate in the Spanish-American War. He was admitted to the bar October 10, 1899,
and at once engaged in the private practice of his chosen profession. He served as secretary of the judiciary
committee of the state senate of California from January to March, 1907, was
deputy city prosecutor of Los Angeles in 1907 and 1908 and filled the office of
deputy district attorney of Los Angeles County from 1908 until 1914, acting as
chief assistant for most of that period.
For a period of eight years, from 1920 until 1928, he was dean and
professor of evidence in St. Vincent’s School of Law of Loyola University of
Los Angeles. The general practice of law
claimed his attention to the time of his death, which occurred June 6, 1932,
when he was in his fifty-fifth year, and in his passing Los Angeles sustained
the loss of one of her prominent and respected citizens as well as
representative and able attorneys.
On the 29th of November,
1906, Mr. Ford married Maude M. McCarthy, of San Diego, California, who died
June 28, 1911, leaving three children, namely:
John J., Robert E. and Margaret E.
The eldest son, John J. Ford, who graduated from Stanford University
with the A. B. degree and from Harvard law School in 1932 with the LL. B.
degree, has followed in the professional footsteps of his father, with whom he
became associated in law practice and whose clientele he took over at the
latter’s death. On the 14th
of July, 1913, W. Joseph Ford was again married, his second union being with
Miss Cecily M. Chambers, of Los Angeles, by whom he had seven children: William Joseph, Jr., Patrick, Joseph Brendan,
Moira, Declan, James and Dermot.
The Republican Party found in Mr.
Ford a stalwart supporter of its principles.
His military record included service in the Spanish-American War as a
private in Company H of the Sixth California Infantry, and in 1913 he was made
first lieutenant of the Sixth Company of Artillery in the California National
Guard. He was a member of the United
Spanish War Veterans, a past president of Corona Parlor of the Native Sons of
the Golden West and was also affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective
Order of Elks, the Knights of Columbus, of which he had been a Grand Knight,
the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles City Club, the Newman
Club, of which he was an ex-president, the Jonathan Club and the California
Club. He was a director of the Los Angeles
center of the American Academy of Political and Social Science and was a
charter life member of the California State Historical Association. Along strictly professional lines he held
membership in the Los Angeles County, California State and American Bar
Associations.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: California of the South
Vol. IV, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 421-422, Clarke Publ.,
Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES