Whether it was pitching lights out for a state championship baseball team or pitching in around the community, that’s just what Rick Ford did.
Ford, who died April 17 at 69, was a lifelong Lynn resident. His smile and laugh were constants — contagious even. It was that way through different chapters of his life, new jobs and hobbies, as well as 44 years of marriage with loving wife, Tina.
“Nobody didn’t like him. He loved his family, kids, and wife. He will be missed,” said Tim Phelan, a friend who served on the City Council with Ford for more than a decade. “He wasn’t really a politician; he was a man of the people.”
Ford was like that at Lynn Tech (’75), where he led the baseball team as a star pitcher — all the way to the 1973 Div. 2 state championship.
“His pitching was incredible. After high school, colleges were after him and everything, then the pros,” said Bart Conlon, Ford’s high school baseball coach and then a teacher at Tech. “A great kid, too, at practice. He did everything you wanted.”
State tournaments consisted of six nine-inning games while Ford played. During the 1973 run, Ford, a sophomore, tossed Games 2, 4, and 6, allowing just one run across 27 innings. Tech defeated Quabbin Regional 1-0 to capture the title.
“6-0, 4-1, and 1-0 final scores. He gave up a run. Imagine that?” Conlon said. “There was a reporter from The Boston Globe covering a game. Three times during the game, he came over and said, ‘This kid can’t be a sophomore.’”
Jim Cowdell, another lifelong Lynner and friend of Ford’s, called him “one of the best athletes Lynn has ever produced.
“I’ve known him most of my life — just a solid person, all about his family, and a loyal friend. His laugh was contagious,” Cowdell said. “A huge loss for the City.”
Off the diamond — and through decades that followed — Ford remained a star teammate.
“On the 50th anniversary, we had a big party and the whole team was there. It was great,” Conlon said. “All over the years, he kept in touch with the kids on the team. Those guys were always getting together here and there. That was good.”
The left-hander was drafted by the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers. He also coached pop warner football and Little League baseball, worked for the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, and served as Lynn’s Ward 7 councilor for 18 years.
The do-it-all man owned and operated Lynn’s Little River Inn for more than three decades.
“Every once in a while, we’d go down (to Little River Inn) and he was always very friendly and very personable,” Conlon said. “You could talk to him for a while.”
Ford enjoyed horse and dog racing, playing softball later in life, and attending games and events of his children and grandchildren.
Always smiling. Always laughing.
“Just a kind, caring person,” Phelan said.
A funeral service will be held Monday at Solimine Funeral Home beginning at 10 a.m., followed by a burial at Pine Grove Cemetery. A wake will be held Sunday from 2-6 p.m. at Solimine Funeral Home.
