Gerald ‘Jake’ Ford

Gerald “Jake” Ford, 87, of Orient, died Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, at the Community Care Center in Stuart. Celebration of Life Memorial Services will be 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 25, at Powers Funeral Home in Creston. Pastor John Van Nostrand will officiate. Services will be livestreamed at a link found under the obituary. Burial will be in the Hill of Zion Cemetery, east of Orient. Military rites will be by Theodore J. Martens, Creston VFW Post #1797. Visitation, with family receiving friends, will be 1-3 p.m. Saturday, prior to services.

Memorials are to Henry A. Wallace Farm or Hill of Zion Township Park. Online condolences may be made at www.powersfh.com.

Jake Ford was born Feb. 18, 1938, son of Ernest Leroy Ford and Lucy Mae (Huddleson) Ford in Adair County, Union Township, Zion. He was the youngest of eight children. He attended Zion Consolidated School and graduated in 1956.

He helped his dad farm for several years after graduating from high school before enlisting in the U.S. Air Force in October 1959. He completed his Air Force training as a radar technician at Lowry Air Force Base in Colorado and was stationed at Oxnard Air Force Base in California from September 1960 – October 1963.

He married Jeanette Corley July 28, 1962, at the Baptist Church in Hodge, Louisiana. Their first son Michael was born in 1963 when Jake was stationed at Oxnard AFB. After Jake completed his service in the Air Force they moved back to Zion and started a life of farming in the Zion community. Together they raised five children.

He had a passion for airplanes and received his private pilot license in 1980 and was a member of the Greenfield Flying Farmers Club. He was a member of the Orient-Macksburg Community School District Board beginning in 1981 for approximately 9 years, representing the Union Township District 3. He also served on the Adair County Heritage Museum Board from 2015 – 2023, representing the Union Township. He was very passionate about preserving the history of Adair County. He also served as Adair County Weed Commissioner May 1989 – 2006.

He was a strong part of the Zion community. After the Zion School building burned down in March 2011, he preserved the capstone of the Zion School sign and built a memorial at the site of the school grounds using the bricks from the original school building. He organized the first annual Zion picnic in 2014.

Jake is survived by his children: Michael (Julie) Ford, Amanda Noble, Crystal Conley, Andrea (Mike) Kennedy and Gary (Melissa) Ford; 12 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

Jake was preceded in death by his parents; wife Jeanette in 2024; siblings: Almond (Ruth) Ford, Roberta (John) Peterson, Robert (Mary) Ford, Phyllis (Darrell) Hann, Edward (Dorothy) Ford, Barbara Brownrigg and Ernest (Kathy) Ford Jr; bothers and sisters-in-law: Lola “Janice” Ranney, Silas “Herndon” Corley, Edward “Maurice” Corley, and Naomi “Ruth” Thompson along with his in-laws, Marvin and Yetive Corley.