Former Toledo mayor named to $65,000 job at BGSU

3/8/2006

BOWLING GREEN - Former Toledo Mayor Jack Ford will teach at Bowling Green State University starting Monday, the university announced yesterday.

Mr. Ford has been appointed a "practitioner-in-residence," a post that will combine teaching with program development, guest lecturing, and advising university officials. The former mayor has a three-year contract as a full-time, nontenured faculty member and will be paid $65,000 a year, Teri Sharp, a university spokesman, said.

Mr. Ford, 58, of Toledo, served one term as mayor and was defeated Nov. 8 by fellow Democrat Carty Finkbeiner. Mr. Ford could not be reached for comment.

Mr. Ford has taught at the collegiate level since 1979, including at both the University of Toledo and BGSU.

His duties will include teaching urban politics and policy, state and local government, and American government in the department of political science, including developing course work that draws on his experience.

He will develop programming for BGeXperience, a values-centered program for freshmen; give guest lectures in other departments in the college of arts and sciences, and advise the dean of arts and sciences on how other faculty members can use their expertise to address community needs.

Don Nieman, dean of the college of arts and sciences, said Mr. Ford's "unique blend of experience, ranging from the classroom to the [Ohio] General Assembly to the office of mayor enables him to bring unique perspectives to courses in political science and several other areas."

A native of Springfield, Ohio, Mr. Ford served on Toledo City Council and in the Ohio House of Representatives before being elected mayor in 2001. He is a graduate of Ohio State University and has a master's degree in public administration and a law degree from UT. He founded and ran a drug treatment center in Toledo from 1980 to 1994.