Bob was born in Augusta, Georgia, June 17, 1946, at the Oliver General Army Hospital. His parents were Lester and Mae Ford. Since his Dad was an Officer in the Army, Bob got to travel all over the world. 

After graduating from Butler High School in 1963, Bob moved to South Carolina to work in the textile industry. He became the youngest foreman in the history of the mill. Bob met Marie Johnson and fell in love. Marie and Bob were married on July 3, 1965. On November 16, 1966, their first child, Brian Keith was born.

In 1967, Bob left the textile industry to work in the world’s largest newsprint paper mill out from Augusta, GA. During the next few years, sin took its toll on Bob. It was during this time that one of Bob’s best friends was killed on the job.

On April 9, 1969, Pastor James C. Williams came by the Ford’s house on visitation. Before the evening was over, Bob saw himself as a sinner in need of a Saviour. He knelt at his coffee table, repented of his sin, and put his faith, his all, in Christ as personal Saviour and Lord.

Two months after being saved, Bob surrendered to preach under the powerful ministry of BIMI missionary Jimmy Rose, veteran missionary to Brazil. He also surrendered to go to Bible College under Brother Rose’s preaching. Bob taught Sunday School, worked with the youth, and preached in different churches, until moving to Chattanooga to attend Tennessee Temple University.

While attending Tennessee Temple University, Kimberly was born in October of 1971 and Stephen in February of 1973. During this time, Bob was pastoring a church, working a job, and taking a full load in college. In 1973, Evangelist Chuck Brady introduced Bob to the Bearing Precious Seed Ministry. They started supporting the ministry as a local church. Two years later, Chuck asked Bob to come to a BPS seminar in Louisiana. It was here, under the ministry of Dr. Don Fraser, the founder of BPS, that Bob and his family surrendered to be BPS missionaries to get God’s Word to those who desperately needed it.

After graduating from T.T.U. and resigning his pastorate in 1975, Bob helped Breezy Hill Baptist Church in Graniteville, SC, to become the first Scripture publishing church in the history of South Carolina. Thousands of copies of the Word of God were sent to different missionaries around the world.

Dr. Charles Keen asked Bob to come work in Milford, OH, at the First Baptist Church BPS ministry in 1977. In January of 1978, the Ford family moved to Milford, OH. Here, God has used Bob to become the top fund raiser in the history of BPS. Going from running the largest paper making machine in the world to raising funds for rolls of paper to publish the precious Word of God for missionaries and national pastors worldwide has been thrilling.

Through the years, thousands have been saved under the Ford’s ministry, many have been called into full-time service, lives have been changed, and the Scriptures has gone into over 100 countries and 15 Islands. Bob has preached and taught in Bible colleges, universities, Bible institutes, and seminaries around the world.

When Bob and Marie’s parents became ill in the 1990’s, Bob resigned as the General Director of BPS to move back to South Carolina to help take care of them.

At present, Brother Ford is working on getting containers of Bibles to Africa, Brazil, Central and South America, the Philippines, and New Guinea.