Honored Life Director Tommy Ford Will Be Inducted Into Texas Housing Hall of Honor
The Texas Association of Builders has announced that Honored Life Director Tommy Ford of Tommy Ford Construction, who passed away May 10, will be inducted into the prestigious Texas Housing Hall of Honor. The induction ceremony will be part of TAB’s Excellence in Leadership Dinner Nov. 4 at the Hyatt Regency in Austin.
Tommy had been a member of the Dallas BA since 1989. He was the recipient of both the Association’s highest award, the Hugh Prather Trophy, and the Texas Association of Builders’ Ted Schlossman Lifetime Achievement Award.
Known to be private about his successes, Tommy was honored with numerous awards for his excellence and generosity. He was a founding member and director of the Texas Builders Foundation, which provides scholarships to students who are pursuing careers as residential construction trades professionals. The Foundation honored him with its Ron Connally Award of Excellence. He also received the Texas Association of Builders’ Philanthropist of the Year award and D Magazine’s Best Builders Legacy Award.
Long before the Texas Builders Foundation was organized in 2010, Tommy Ford recognized that the building industry was facing a critical shortage of construction trades professionals. He played a pivotal role in educating Texans on the benefits of becoming construction trades professionals and provided scholarships to students working toward construction trades certifications, licenses or degrees.
He contributed $10,000 to the National Housing Endowment for establishment of an educational scholarship to support green building education, and contributed to the Press Club of Dallas Foundation as an underwriter of the Boone Pickens Roast, a charity fundraiser. Tommy had collaborated with Pickens on the Mesa Vista Ranch in the Eastern Texas Panhandle, showcasing innovation in sustainable ranch architecture.
Tommy’s charitable accomplishments also included support of faith-based outreach ministries across Amarillo and Dallas and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He also worked with Dallas Fire-Rescue to donate sprinklers for low income homes, a contribution that was then matched by the Dallas BA’s Custom Builders/Remodelers Council.
Tommy was active in the home building industry at all levels. He was elected an Honored Life Director of the Dallas BA in 2000, and was also a state and national life director. He was instrumental in crafting a program for compliance with state legislated energy standards. serves on several regional and national code committees. He served for more than a decade on the North Central Texas Council of Governments’ Regional Codes Coordinating Committee. This group of DFW area building officials and industry professionals compose regional amendments to ICC codes that result in codes that reflect local building practices and foster regional continuity. Tommy’s advocacy efforts on the RCCC alone saved builders thousand of dollars over the years.
Tommy got his start in the industry at age 7, cleaning up job sites for his father, a home builder in West Texas. Tommy Ford Construction was founded in 1965 in Vernon, TX. Tommy spent many years working in the oil field, but wanted to get back to what he loved, which was building homes. He began working out of his truck and took on whatever jobs he could to support his family. After several years working in Vernon and the surrounding area, he and his family moved to Amarillo in 1969. He served as president of the Texas Panhandle Builders Association in 1988.
Former Dallas BA Executive Officer Phil Crone noted that Tommy Ford embodied everything the Hall of Honor stands for: integrity, foresight, generosity and a deep commitment to building better homes and better communities across Texas. “Tommy never sought the spotlight. He never needed to. His legacy lives on in the codes he helped write, those he mentored and the high standards of care he quietly modeled every day.”