Wendell H. Ford — a legendary figure in Kentucky Democratic politics — died Thursday morning in Owensboro, according to multiple sources. He was 90.
The former Kentucky governor and four-term U.S. senator was praised by leaders from both major parties.
U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, speaking Thursday on the Senate floor, called Ford “one of the giants of Kentucky politics.”
“Ford shaped the history of the Commonwealth in ways few others had before him,” McConnell said. “He never forgot the lessons about hard work he learned while milking cows or tending to chores on the family farm. And this World War II veteran never backed down from a fight either.”
Jack Conway, the state attorney general who is seeking to be the Democrats’ pick in the race for governor this year, praised Ford as a “dear friend.”
“Wendell Ford fought for Kentucky — its schools, its towns, its farmers, and its airports,” Conway said in a statement. “But most of all, he fought for the people of the Commonwealth he loved so dearly.”
Ford served in the Kentucky state senate from 1965 to 1967, according to his congressional biography. He was lieutenant governor from 1967 to 1971 and then governor from 1971 to 1974. He was appointed to the U.S. senate in November 1974 and went on to win re-elections in 1980, 1986 and again in 1992. He retired from the senate in 1999.
According to multiple news reports, Ford had been undergoing treatment for cancer since last fall.
Wendell Hampton Ford was born Sept. 8, 1924, near Owensboro in Daviess County, where he attended public school, according to his congressional biography. Ford attended the University of Kentucky and graduated from the Maryland School of Insurance in 1947. He served in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946 and the Kentucky National Guard from 1942 to 1962.
UK President Eli Capilouto praised Ford’s career and his ties to the university.
“He was rightfully proud of The Martin School for Public Policy and Administration in which he was so involved for decades as well as the public policy center in UK Libraries that bears his name,” Capilouto said.
After leaving political office, Ford continued to serve the public. He founded the Wendell H. Ford Government Education Center at the Owensboro Museum of Science and History. The center teaches all ages about government process and civic engagement.