Dr. Frank Ford was born and spent nearly his entire life in Baltimore, where he established a strong Paediatric Neurology Service. He graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1915 and its medical school in 1920. In 1918, he joined the Student Army Training Corps. Ford served an internship at the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Institute of The Johns Hopkins Hospital from 1920 to 1921 before completing a residency in neurology at the Bellevue Hospital in New York in 1922.

He returned to Johns Hopkins as a resident in neurology in 1922. He spent a year in psychiatry at the Phipps Psychiatric Clinic under Adolf Meyer but found Meyer's laboratory more objective and satisfying. He left for New York and Bellevue Hospital for a year of neurology training under Foster Kennedy. Here, he would also have encountered Sachs, who was a member of the staff. He returned to the Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1923 and was chief of neurology from 1932 to 1958.

He had a major interest in Paediatric Neurology. Cerebral Birth Injuries and Their Results (1927) was his first book in this area. His text, Diseases of the Nervous System in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence, 36 was first published in 1937. This book grew from 950 to over 1,500 pages by its posthumous six edition.

Dr. Ford must have worked on this continuously, considering the amount of material he included and that he did all the work, including the typing! In 1937, Ford published Diseases of the Nervous System in Infancy, Childhood and Adolescence. The success of the book was immediate, and it was translated into several foreign languages. The book was published through six editions and cemented his reputation as a neurologist both in the United States and abroad.

Ford was known as a great teacher, clinician, and mentor and published many papers on neurology during his career before retiring in 1958. This work, which became the Bible of Paediatric Neurology, remains his major legacy. To those who worked with him, his greatest strength was his authoritative bedside finesse, which led to his designation as "the judge." Ford's work was confined to Baltimore. He did not join national societies and declined invitations to speak elsewhere. His withdrawn personality also made it difficult for him to teach classes.

To honor the dedication followed by Dr. Ford, ICNA has been hosting the Frank Ford Award since 1982. The Frank Ford Award is a senior investigator award for recognition of lifetime clinical and research contributions to Child Neurology and to the ICNA.