Built Ford tough: remembering legendary composer-conductor Ralph Ford

On July 31, the world of music lost one of its brightest and most talented composers, arrangers, and conductors. 

Ralph Ford, who came to Troy University as a freshman music major and eventually inherited the “Sound of the South” band program from legendary bandmaster Dr. Johnny Long, died unexpectedly at his home in Panama City, Florida. He had just turned 63.  

Mr. Ford’s influence is simply incalculable. Other than his work for Troy University over 40-plus years, he also was a published writer with Alfred Music and Warner Bros. Publications, and his music was played by bands all over the world. He was more than just our teacher, he was also our mentor and friend, and played a huge role in many of our lives. 

In 2015, I authored a book titled Fanfare: the Legacy of the Troy University Bands, which was sold to raise money for band scholarships at Troy. I made several trips to see Ralph and recorded interviews with him. As a tribute to the man, I wish to share a portion of his dream-come-true story in his own words. 

"I had started writing in junior high school. My band director, Allan Williams, worked closely with the junior high director and heard about me. When I went to Bay High and started writing some charts for the high school band, somehow word got to Gulf Coast Community College. The head music teacher out there was named Prentiss Melder, and he had been the first Troy drum major ever [though I did not know that at the time]. He had a community jazz band with some college students and some adults. Mr. Melder was the first person who hired me to be an arranger -- $25.00 to write charts for the jazz band at Gulf Coast. I did it like I’ve always done – I had to go get a book and figure it out. My first arrangement was Billy Joel’s 'My Life'. If working professionally is getting paid for what you do, I have been working professionally since I was fifteen.

"My junior year, we got an assistant band director who was a new graduate from Troy. He was ready to set the world on fire. His name was Tom Brown. Tom came in with a cassette tape of the Troy band playing the Jim Mahaffey arrangement of 'Children of Sanchez'. He was encouraging me to go to Troy, and so was Allan, but I was just planning on staying in Panama City, going to the junior college, maybe playing some gigs on the beach playing 'Brown Eyed Girl' and 'Margaritaville'.

"I had taken beginner band in the summer at Jenks, and Mr. Fred Boswell always had a large program, like 300 students in the band. He always had three beginner band classes and an intermediate band class. Even in our very first year of playing, he would put all of the bands together and stick us in the Christmas parade as a second band. It was the first time I ever realized (at age 12) you can have all these people sitting in the room playing different instruments, playing different notes, but it’s all part of one idea all at the same time – and it makes sense. It’s everything you could do on the piano but there were different sounds and different colors. It was amazing. It just floored me. 

"From that point on, I started going up to Mr. Boswell’s podium and borrowing conductor’s scores and studying them. I started writing charts for other people in high school. I also attended the Troy summer band camp, which was huge in those days. Hundreds of students from all over the southeast. 

"I really wasn’t planning to go off to college anywhere. But I had two cousins, my mom’s brother’s kids, one of which lived in Troy. We kind of grew up together, so we hung out a lot. So, it happened that I moved to Troy and moved in with them. I got a job at WTBF as a disc jockey and that helped pay for school. Rooming with my cousin made it possible for me to come to Troy. Since I came from a single parent home, my mom couldn’t have afforded it. 

"In 1981, I went to band camp. The Thursday Night Band Camp party was hosted on Collegedale. That Thursday night at band camp my freshman year, everybody was there.   I met Paul Yoder, Dr. Long, Jim Mahaffey, and Patricia Nuss, the flute teacher at the time.  The faculty participated in all the activities back then with the students. Me being the person I am, I stayed until the very end of the party. 

“I wrote my first chart for the Troy band, 'The Lady is a Tramp,' in the spring of 1982. Dr. Long read through it with the Symphony Band. I actually wrote it while working the night shift at the radio station. It was okay, but he decided not to use it.

“I played lead trumpet in the jazz band my freshman year. Marc Dickman was the director of the jazz band. Dr. Long had me playing harp parts on a Wurlitzer electric piano in the Symphony Band, where I also played last-chair trumpet.  By my sophomore year, I was directing the Jazz Ensemble. I wrote an arrangement of 'Groovin’ High' that featured me and Dickman. We came out wearing dashikis. Dr. Long was encouraging me to write more arrangements for the band. I kept writing for the band on and off. I started meeting Troy graduates during the summer band camps and graduate school. I moved from the Delta Chi house to the brand-new Dozier Trailer Park with TV’s Andrew Findley. And the rest is history."

We will miss you, Mr. Ford! Thank you for the music and for your influence on so many lives.

Michael Bird is an assistant professor of Music at Faulkner University.