Paul F. Ford

Paul F. Ford (died 1993) was a North Billerica insurance agent who served six years on the Billerica School Committee, later sat on the Planning Board, and was elected to the Select Board in April 1993, only to die in office that November. He ran the Paul F. Ford Insurance Agency at 293 Boston Road, North Billerica, which advertised life, fire, automobile and liability coverage in the high school yearbook, and in the early 1970s he lived on Montbatten Road and was a Town Meeting member for Precinct 5.

He was elected to the School Committee in March 1971, leading the field with 2,422 votes, and was re-elected in 1974 with 3,028. He was the committee's secretary in 1971 and 1972 and its chairman in 1973, and was chairman again in 1976 and into 1977, serving with Charles L. Hallenborg, James T. Dangora, Suzanne McCarthy and Maureen Collins Rea while William H. Flaherty Jr. was superintendent. He represented the committee on the Permanent School Building Committee, to which he was appointed in 1973, and was vice-chairman of the town's Drug Action Committee, which in 1975 asked town meeting for $22,500 for the SHARE drug program. He was also appointed in 1973 to the town's committee for the two-hundredth anniversary of the American Revolution. In 1972 he narrowly lost a race for the Planning Board to Arthur L. Doyle, 2,593 votes to 2,585, after which the result was challenged with a recount. He was not re-elected to the School Committee in 1977, finishing behind Maureen Collins Rea, and in 1979 he ran again for the Planning Board without success.

Ford returned to town office in April 1991, when he was elected to the Planning Board with 2,646 votes, the highest total in the race, and returned to Town Meeting. At the 1991 town meeting he moved the budget of $51,582 for the Planning Board office, explaining that the increase would fund the position of Town Planner, and by 1992 he was the board's vice-chairman under Ruthanne Allen Bossi. In September 1992 he ran in the Democratic primary for state representative and carried 1,789 votes in Billerica against 2,057 for William G. Greene Jr..

In the town election of April 3, 1993, he and Brion M. Cangiamila defeated the incumbent selectmen Mary V. Wiroll and David F. Delorey Jr., Ford polling 2,110 votes. He resigned from the Planning Board, and the reorganized board chose him as vice-chairman under Arthur L. Doyle; he also became the town's member of the Lowell Regional Transit Authority. That spring he sponsored a zoning amendment that allowed the Inspector of Buildings, with the Town Engineer, to rule that isolated pockets shown as flood plain on the town's maps lay outside the Flood Plain District when an engineering survey showed it, and he explained it to town meeting. He became ill within months and died on November 17, 1993. The board wrote that he "brought a new energy and innovative ideas to our meetings" and that his loss "was truly a sad day for Billerica"; it chose not to hold a special election and served with four members until April 1994. The Selectman Paul F. Ford Memorial Scholarship was afterwards awarded each year to a graduating senior of Billerica Memorial High School.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1971, town election March 6, 1971: School Committee, Paul F. Ford 2,422
2. Billerica Town Report 1972, town election: Planning Board, Arthur L. Doyle 2,593, Paul F. Ford 2,585
3. Billerica Town Report 1974, town election: School Committee three years, Paul F. Ford 3,028
4. Warrior 1975 (Billerica Memorial High School yearbook), advertisement: Paul F. Ford Insurance Agency, 293 Boston Road, North Billerica
5. Billerica Town Report 1991, town election: Planning Board three years, Paul F. Ford elected with 2,646
6. Billerica Town Report 1992, state primary September 1992: Representative in General Court, Greene 2,057, Paul F. Ford 1,789 (Billerica returns)
7. Billerica Town Report 1993, In Memoriam: Paul F. Ford, deceased November 17, 1993; School Committee 1971-1977, Planning Board, Selectman 1993
8. Billerica Town Report 1993, town election April 3, 1993: Selectmen, Cangiamila 2,668, Paul F. Ford 2,110, Wiroll 1,942, Delorey 1,284
9. Billerica Town Report 1993, special town meeting Article 11: flood plain zoning amendment moved and explained by Selectman Ford
10. Billerica Town Report 1993, Board of Selectmen report: Paul Ford vice-chairman, died November 1993, no special election held
11. Warrior 1995 (Billerica Memorial High School yearbook), senior awards: Selectman Paul Ford Memorial Scholarship