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Much of islander Herbert Ford’s work with the CIA is, as you might suspect, totally classified. Here’s what he can tell you: He’s happy to be home.
Native Hilton Head Islander Herbert Ford doesn’t talk much about his career. It’s not that he isn’t proud of the job he spent more than half his life doing. It’s just that much of it is classified.
Ford, who grew up across from Singleton Beach and spent his childhood crabbing and farming to help feed his family, retired in 2009 from the CIA. Over the course of a career that spanned 29 years he had risen to a position where he was in charge of one aspect of national security for the entire globe.
It was, to put it mildly, more stressful than crabbing. “Anytime anything happened anywhere that impacted my area of responsibility, I would get a call,” Ford said. “The last two years prior to my retirement I never got a good night’s rest.”
Such international implications are not lost on the hometown hero, whose own father never made it past the first grade. “It was an incredible experience, one that I never imagined that a young kid from Hilton Head would be able to do,” said Ford, who recently learned he will be receiving the Distinguished Career in Intelligence Medal, one of the highest honors awarded by the CIA.
A self-described bookworm as a kid, Ford graduated in 1971 from H.E. McCracken High School in Bluffton, where lifelong friend Emory Campbell described him as “an active leader who had great leadership skills.” Ford went on to earn a degree in sociology from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla. “My mom planted the seed that if I wanted a better life I needed an education,” he said.
For three years after graduation, Ford worked as the program coordinator for ex-offenders and migrant seasonal farm workers in Homestead, Fla., then returned to Hilton Head and got a job at a social service agency working with a daycare. “I went from ex-convicts to little kids,” Ford said. “I felt like I could make a mark on someone at a very young age, to ensure hopefully they would never become an ex-offender.”
Ford also immersed himself in the community, where he was introduced to a fellow islander who had recently retired from the CIA. “He asked if it was OK to refer my name to the CIA for potential employment,” Ford said. “Of course I didn’t take him seriously.” But after a year’s worth of background checks, the agency offered Ford a job — and two weeks to pack his things and move to Washington, D.C.
The bulk of Ford’s career was spent providing security support for operations overseas; he and his team were responsible for preparing a daily briefing for the president on activities anywhere on the globe that could have a potential impact on domestic security.
Of course, one of the most jarring events in American history happened on his watch. “When the plane hit the Pentagon (on Sept. 11) I could actually see it from my window,” Ford said. “I had to call back employees who were headed there for a meeting. We didn’t know where the planes were coming from and whether any were targeting us. It’s a day that I will never forget.”
Nor will he forget the aftermath, as his beloved agency, its protocols and perceived shortcomings were called into question. “Somebody has to be the whipping boy,” he said of the flak the CIA took at the time. “You can’t speak about what you work on, but you have to accept the punishment for things. You don’t get the praise, but you do get the criticism. You just have to accept that.
There were many changes in the agency after that day, but his pride in his job held steady. “The job I did and the information we provided for our president had national implications,” he said. Friends and family at home agreed. “I was very, very proud of him,” Campbell said. “I am still.”
Four years ago Ford married for a second time, and when his wife, Renee, found out he was from Hilton Head she decided they should move there when he retired. “My wife is from Pittsburgh, and she always had the desire to live near the ocean,” he said. So the Lowcountry native returned to the land, the family and the church he’d left so long ago.
He’s happy to be back among friends, though he says the slower pace of life and different topics of conversation have been quite an adjustment. To occupy his time he’s become involved in several civic-minded activities; in November he was elected to be Hilton Head’s No. 1 Public Service District commissioner for Sub-District 1. And he’s been a Coastal Discovery Museum board member for more than a year, after being recommended by Campbell. “I could think of no better person to help the museum,” Campbell said. “Herbie knows what it takes to have a community succeed.”
Ford’s connection to native islanders and personal history made him an ideal board member, said Michael Marks, president of the museum. “Obviously he’s well connected in the Gullah community, with which this museum has had a long relationship,” Marks said.
For his part, Ford says he was amazed by the museum’s reach. “They do a lot with local schools, on the island as well as Bluffton,” he said.
That strikes a chord with Ford, who volunteers with the Strive to Excel program and serves as a mentor to kids at Hilton Head Island High School. “I try to do as much mentoring as I can, to get kids to see that I didn’t think there would ever be an opportunity to do something like what I did,” he said.
Still, from the most meager beginnings to a national medal, Ford attributes his success to one thing. “Education is the key,” he says.
