SMU students learned a valuable lesson about the twists and turns that life can take from Gerald J. Ford after the December graduation ceremonies.
Ford spoke to approximately 75 students at the Underwood Law Library about how individual lawyers have impacted his life.
“I am not a lawyer,” Ford said. “I don’t know who would be more surprised with my presence here today. Dean Galvin, who was the head of the law school while I was here or my professors. I was not known for having a good attendance record,” Ford said.
In 1966, Ford earned his bachelor’s degree in economics and a juris doctorate from Dedman School of Law in 1969.
Despite this, Ford learned a great deal about contracts, corporations and other areas of business law. It helped to remove some of the mystique about lawyers for him and allowed him to apply what he had learned to draw up contracts and buy banks. This was the start of Ford’s business empire.
Ford said that he wanted to be a lawyer from the time that he was in about the seventh or eighth grade.
“Being a kid in a small town and looking around me, it was the lawyers who had the money and respect in the community. They weren’t sweating it out in a body shop or farming. They wore nice clothes and had air-conditioned offices.”
Described as a quintessential entrepreneurial banker, the West Texas native began his banking career by purchasing a number of small banks in rural areas of the state.
After receiving valuable advice from Doug Hearn as part of a legal battle to build I-35, Ford watched for the “best” lawyers in town any time that he had a business concern and sought their advice, before investing much money in the deal. Ford later met with Hearn after receiving some advice from attorney Jay Brown.
“Although the advice you receive from a lawyer may be accurate and legal, it’s not always good advice'” Ford said.
“I have many fond memories of my days as a student,” Ford said. “I stay involved with SMU because I enjoy taking a break from my regular life and coming back to a place with happy experiences associated with it.”
Ford had asked Brown about permissions necessary to build I-35. He was told that none were needed, the company had right of imminent domain. However, as soon as construction began, everyone seemed to be protesting the new highway in Austin. This began a four-year legal battle that ended in a two-week trial where Hearn represented the company.
“I learned two other lessons from that episode,” Ford said. “First, that politicians make the worst witnesses and second, that if you have the resources justice will prevail.”
After this experience, Ford, who had poor credit at the time, joined with two friends who had good credit. They bought the First National Bank of Post, Texas for $22 million. His career in banking began.
“I would draw up contracts and agreements on my yellow legal pad at night and everyone would sign it,” Ford said. “The next day the local townspeople would find out about the sale, but it was a done deal. Bank owners don’t like to sell to locals, they always seek outside buyers. That’s just the way they do things.”
Ford’s one bank grew to six or eight before they bought their first flagship bank, the First National Bank of Lubbock.
“Not everyone from there believes it, but we really did stimulate their economy,” Ford said.
Ford serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees for SMU as well as also chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Golden State Bancorp Inc., headquartered in San Francisco. It is a holding company for the nation’s second largest thrift institution and California’s fourth largest bank. He also is board chair and CEO of Liberté#233; Investors Inc., an investment firm.
Now Ford Ford’s civic activities include service as a trustee of the Children’s Medical Foundation and Southwestern Medical Foundation, member of the Dallas Citizens Council and director of the Dallas Boys and Girls Clubs, Inc. He was named as distinguished alum in 1995 and has been a member of the SMU Board of Trustees since 1992. He is chair of the board’s Finance Committee and a member of its Executive Committee, Trusteeship Committee, Committee on Athletics and Executive Committee of the Campaign for SMU. He also currently serves as co-chair of the Dedman College Campaign Committee and on the Executive Board of Dedman School of Law. He is a former member of the Executive Boards of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Edwin L. Cox School of Business, John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies and Willis M. Tate Distinguished Lecture Series.
