Leslie M. Ford

Leslie Martin Ford, Jr, "Skip", 73, died October 8th at the Veterans Administration in White River Junction, Vermont after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. He was born on January 7th, 1946 in Quincy, Mass, the eldest son and second born to Leslie Martin Ford, Sr and Dorothy Oakley Schrader Ford.
He attended Andover High School and at the age of 17 enlisted in the Navy where he obtained his GED. He served in the Navy for the next 8 years, with a tour of duty in Cuba on Guantanamo Bay; honorable discharged with the rank of ABH second class. In 1969, while stationed at the Brunswick Navy Air Base, he met and married his wife, Linda Elliott. They settled in Phippsburg, Maine, Linda's home town; and were married for 36 years, raising their daughter Liz. Les worked on a small, family owned fishing boat out of Phippsburg. He owned his own 18-wheeler, driving coast to coast and locally for years. After Linda passed, he moved to the Carabassett Valley and worked at Sugarloaf Ski Resort as a mechanic and fabricator. After retiring in 2006, he moved to Potter Place, NH to live on the family land with his sister Buffy Thurston.
Les loved being a mentor and a teacher. He spent his life teaching mechanics, welding, and was certainly a "jack of all trades". He restored many vehicles in his shop at his home in Phippsburg, with many a young man learning the trades at his side. When he moved to Potter Place, he enjoyed fixing tractors, cutting down trees, mowing fields, plowing snow; and most of all driving his red jeep "SQUID" visiting his friends.
Leslie is survived by his daughter, Lisabeth and her husband Bert, their children: Leslie, Albert Jr and Kayla, Eric and Nikki and Nathan, and his great grandchildren Salvador, Georgia, Alex and Caleb; his sisters Linda and Lizabeth "Buffy" his brothers Lawrence "Larry", Lance and Loring "Spunk", and the extended and numerous Ford family.
There will be a private family service held at the New Hampshire State Veterans Cemetery in Boscawen on October 25. There will be an open house celebration of life Saturday October 26 at Buffy's home, 153 Cilleyville Road, Andover NH starting at 1pm. Liz will be hosting a Celebration of Life for her Dad at the Plant Memorial Home, 1 Washington Street, Bath Maine on Oct 27th from 1-4pm.