Hallie Ford

Hallie Brown Ford (March 17, 1905 – June 4, 2007) was an American business person and philanthropist. A native of Oklahoma, she acquired her wealth in Oregon through the timber industry. As a philanthropist she made donations to many institutions in Oklahoma and Oregon to support education and the arts. Shortly before her death in 2007, she made a donation of $15 million to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the largest single donation to any cultural group in Oregon history.

The Hallie Ford Museum of Art and several other institutions at Willamette University and Oregon State University in Oregon are named in her honor, as are several items at her alma mater East Central University in Oklahoma.

Early life Hallie Brown was born in Red Fork, Oklahoma, on March 17, 1905. At the time it was Indian Territory, with Oklahoma becoming a state in 1907. She attended Beggs High School where she was valedictorian. In Roseburg she was a civic leader, and was given the First Citizens Award in 1967 by the local chamber of commerce. She then started the Ford Opportunity Scholarship Program in 1995 for single parents. Ford became a lifetime member of the board of trustees at Willamette in 1996, and received the Governor of Oregon's Arts Award for Arts Patronage. Her husband Kenneth died on February 8, 1997. In 2002, she moved to an assisted living facility in Monmouth, Oregon. In May 2007, Hallie Ford donated $15 million to the Pacific Northwest College of Art, the largest donation in that school's history. The donation would primarily be used for a visiting artists program. Also that month she was given the Distinguished Philanthropist Award by East Central University. The gift went toward the Hallie Ford Center for Healthy Children and Families as part of the school's College of Health and Human Sciences.

Death and legacy Hallie Ford died on June 4, 2007, in Monmouth, Oregon, at the age of 102 after a brief illness. Ford Hall and the Hallie Ford Museum at Willamette University are named in her honor, as is the school's English and literature endowed professorship. At East Central University the Hallie Brown Ford Fine Arts Center and the Hallie Brown Ford Award for Philanthropy honor her legacy at the school where she donated approximately $7 million over the years.