Originally published 11/6/14

Last year, Grand Valley State University lost a member of the Laker community who touched the lives of students for more than four decades. On Nov. 10, GVSU will honor Milton E. Ford by renaming the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center he founded in 2008 to the Milton E. Ford LGBT Resource Center.

The naming ceremony will be held in the Kirkhof Center in Room 1161 from 5 to 7 p.m.

“As an openly gay man, Milton was a role model for our students and created a space for them to live authentically,” said Colette Beighley, the director for the LGBT Resource Center.

After Ford’s passing,  GVSU’s president Thomas Haas and provost Gayle Davis made the decision to rename the center in his honor.

“Ford served as director of the center for two years before returning to full-time teaching,” Beighley said.

During this time, Ford worked tirelessly to secure funding for the center, and secured two grants of more than $200,000. He also fostered relationships with the community as well as enhanced the scope of the center and its mission by adding programs and positions to oversee those programs. According to Ford, the opening of the center and his tenure as director was his most rewarding professional accomplishment.

Even after his time as director of the center was completed, Ford continued to be an advocate for LGBT students. He served on the committee to create the LGBTQ studies minor, which was approved by the University Academic Senate in the summer of 2013.

“Milton’s love for our students was indeed revolutionary in that he saw in them what they could not yet see in themselves,” Beighley said. “Milton was always in deep relationship with his students. These relationships are the hallmark of Milton’s legacy on our campus.”

Ford began his career as an English professor before teaching liberal studies. Even in this earlier point in his career, Ford was still involved in the LGBT community and was a faculty advisor for an LGBT student organization in the 1990s.

“For safety reasons, they would not announce the meeting place for the LGBT student support group,” Ford once said.

This state of affairs, when compared to the current climate and state of diversity and acceptance on the GVSU campus, is an indicator of Ford’s legacy, but also shows how far GVSU has come as a community.

According to its mission statement, the purpose of the LGBT Resource Center is to educate, support and empower students to lead authentic lives, to challenge systems of gender and sexuality and to work for social justice. They strive to create an inclusive and just environment where the many expressions of gender and sexuality are celebrated.

“The kinds of services and support that are now available to our LGBTQ campus community are possible because of the work of Milton Ford,” Beighley said. “Milton did this for our community, for past students and for those who will never know him but will benefit from his legacy.”

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