LEBANON — A few days after Cameron Ford began working at Headrest, he started rebuilding a stone wall.
This wouldn’t be unusual, except Ford wasn’t hired to do maintenance work for the nonprofit organization that assists people with substance misuse disorders: He was hired to lead it.
“That’s how he operated. He was just as comfortable in a T-shirt and hat as he was in a suit and tie,” said Al Carbonneau, who manages the 24/7 Crisis-Suicide Hotline at Headrest. “He thought nothing of getting down and doing the work.”
Ford, who in his five years at Headrest greatly expanded its programs and reach, died unexpectedly on July 14, 2022, at the age of 64. He was a mechanic, a carpenter and an Indian motorcycle restorer. Ford, a U.S. Army veteran, helped people with disabilities secure employment and for a time led his own nonprofit to help veterans find jobs.
His interest — and success — in workforce development was one of the reasons he stood out Headrest’s board of directors during their search for a new leader, said Laurie Harding, long-time chair of Headrest’s board and current volunteer. After being hired, Ford was charged with growing a workforce program that helped people in recovery find — and keep — employment. He worked with businesses to create recovery friendly workplaces and advocated New Hampshire lawmakers about their effectiveness.
“He had really received incredibly positive results from people who really counted on that job to stay in recovery because they had a reason to get up every day,” Harding said.
That was his ethos. People couldn’t just have jobs, they had to have a career path and goals they could work toward.
“He believed in people,” Ford’s wife of 40 years Dinah Ford Delaney said. “He believed everyone deserved a second chance and he believed everyone could overcome what they needed to overcome if they worked at it.”
The couple lived in Contoocook, N.H., in a home Ford built. In addition to his wife, he is survived by six children.
Ford lived the lessons he taught. Early in their marriage, Ford worked as a mechanic with a focus on Indian motorcycles, but the income wasn’t stable. He sold his 1947 Indian so that he could purchase a car to apply for a job with a steady income.
That lead to a job working with people with disabilities. He saw how having a job and a place where their skills were valued made them feel appreciated. Ford applied a similar mindset to working with people in recovery.
“The goal was to get people into a place where they could survive on what they made and they could feel good about what they did for a living,” Delaney said.
In the last year of his leadership, Ford oversaw a merger with a nonprofit organization in Boscawen, N.H., now called Renew Recovery House, that provides sober living for men. He also led the renovation of Headrest’s Church Street location, home to Headrest’s low-intensity residential program, and took a hands-on role in the building plans. He paid close attention to the details, including a kitchen table that only sat four and limited socialization among clients staying there.
“Cam recognized that and really saw the need to push that kitchen out to the sidewalk and see if we can seat six or eight people at the table instead of four,” Harding said.
When Headrest’s outpatient program moved to Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital, Ford found furniture at area nonprofit organizations, then organized a group of board members and staff to deliver it.
“That was so typical of Cam,” Harding said.
He took the same approach during the COVID-19 pandemic when the kitchen at the house was being renovated. Ford contacted area restaurants, then went and picked up meals to deliver them to residents at the house.
That’s part of what endeared him to Headrest’s staff.
“He would overload his plate to go above and beyond his role,” said Rebecca Bailey, Headrest director of business development and supervisor of Headrest Opportunities for Work (HOW) program. “Underling did not exist in Cameron’s world. We were just all partners in helping people.”
He let staff do the job they were hired to do and wasn’t prone to micromanaging. But he was always accessible: Text messages sent after hours were regularly returned. If he thought an employee was getting burned out in their role, he’d work with them to find another place in the organization.
“Sometimes you would just get a text message, ‘How are you today? Do you need anything?’ You had crossed his mind and he decided he would reach out,” Bailey said. “The word that comes to mind when I talk about Cameron is authentic. You knew what you were going to get. You knew that everything he said to you was authentically what he felt and what he was passionate about.”
It was Ford’s passion that convinced Matt McKenney to join Headrest’s board of directors.
“Cam was really good at bringing people together and getting people to work together,” Mckenney said. “I was immediately drawn to that.”
Sometimes, Ford’s ambitions needed to be dialed back. Ford and McKenney, who currently chair’s the board, met each week to discuss plans.
“Cam was the gas and I was the brakes. He wanted to conquer the world, it was my responsibility to make sure it was in the scope of what we could accomplish,” McKenney said. “He always aspired to do more and I admired him for that.”
Ford also always kept in mind that programs were only as effective as the participants enrolled in them. He made an effort to get to know Headrest clients to see what was working for them.
“That’s one of the things Cam valued and always sought to understand,” Mckenney said.
That long predated his Ford’s time at Headrest. He co-founded the Capital Area Boxing Club with the late Billy Ahern, where they worked with young people who were struggling to help them develop disciple and apply that to other aspects of their lives.
“He had the ability to unlock what’s buried in people. … He modeled strength and what it meant to aim for your best,” said Jeanne Duford, Ahern’s daughter and a friend of Ford’s. “He didn’t allow people to just settle.”
Ford also had quite the sense of humor. He was always ready with a dad joke that were often corny or cringe-worthy “but because it was him you had to laugh,” Duford said.
He loved to sign karaoke, particularly John Prine songs and went to see the singer-songwriter perform every chance he got. Ford would regularly bring his guitar to Headrest gatherings, leading people in song.
“I don’t ever think it ever crossed his mind that he was leaving a legacy,” Bailey said. Every person he helped in recovery caused a ripple effect to that person’s spouse or children or community. “He was just doing it because he was authentically Cameron, but the legacy he has left is generational, for generations to come.”
Editor’s note: A celebration of life will be held for Ford from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 25, at the E. Roger Montgomery American Legion Post 81 at 169 Boundtree Road in Contoocook. Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
