Dr. Corydon L. Ford was born August 29, 1813 in Lexington, New York. His father was a farmer, but Corydon concerned himself with his studies instead of with the family farm. At the age of seventeen he began dividing his time between attending school, reading medicine, and teaching.  In 1842 he received his M.D. degree from Geneva Medical College; on the day of his graduation he was appointed demonstrator of anatomy in this institution. In 1846 a medical college in Buffalo was organized and Dr. Ford received a similar appointment there, beginning his work in early 1847. In 1849 he became the chair of Anatomy and Physiology at the medical school at Castleton, Vermont, and continued his work there until the school closed. In 1854 he was called to the professorship of anatomy in the University of Michigan. He lectured in Ann Arbor during the fall and winter for thirty-nine consecutive years. At the same time he continued lecturing in other schools during the spring and summer months.  Only a day or two before he was stricken by death, April 14, 1894, he had finished his one-hundred and ninth course of lectures on anatomy. Dr. Ford gave all his time and energy to teaching; his fluency of speech and his enthusiasm for his work made his lectures veritable revelations to those who surrounded him in the classroom. In 1865 at Pittsfield, Massachusetts he was married to Jannie Chapman Messer, the window of Nathanial Messer, and daughter of Ichabod Chapman. On May 2, 1893, after a brief illness Jannie passed away. Dr. Ford passed away the following year.

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