[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 94 (Friday, July 12, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Page S6706]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRIBUTE TO JOE FORD

 Mrs. LINCOLN. Mr. President, for the last several months the 
American people have been subjected to a string of stunning revelations 
from some of our largest public companies. Accounting irregularities, 
shady business practices, and exorbitant executive compensation 
packages are apparently standard operating practice in some of our 
corporate boardrooms. As a result, thousands of families have lost 
their jobs and their savings, and investor confidence in our system of 
free enterprise has been severely shaken.
  I would like to take a few minutes today to pay tribute to an 
Arkansas businessman who represents a vastly different picture of the 
American business leader Joe Ford of ALLTEL Corporation, who retired 
from his position as CEO this year.
  A native of Conway, AR, Joe graduated from the University of Arkansas 
in 1959 before joining Little Rock's Allied Telephone Company. He 
advanced through several management positions and was named vice-
president in 1963. By 1977, he was named president of Allied, a 
position he held until 1983 when his company merged with the Mid-
Continent Telephone Corporation of Hudson, OH, to form ALLTEL. This 
merger, along with the 1990 purchase of Systematics, Inc., in Little 
Rock, laid the foundation for the telecommunications leader that ALLTEL 
has since become. Joe Ford was named ALLTEL president and CEO in 1987. 
He became chairman and CEO in 1991.
  In a competitive and rapidly changing environment, Joe steered ALLTEL 
through a number of changes, including the deregulation of the 
telephone industry. He also led ALLTEL into a number of new, growing 
markets most notably wireless communications.
  When ALLTEL turned on its cellular service in 1986, they had only 310 
customers. Ford and many of his colleagues were unsure as to whether 
the new technology would catch on. But as we know now, the wireless 
industry exploded, and ALLTEL expanded across the southeastern United 
States. Today, ALLTEL covers portions of 23 States, serving six million 
wireless customers. Today, the company has expanded even further into 
information services, financial services, and mortgage processing.
  When Joe Ford joined Allied Telephone in 1959, the company had 65 
employees and 5,000 telephone customers. Today, ALLTEL is my State's 
largest high-tech company, with 4,100 employees working at the main 
campus in Little Rock. ALLTEL is also the sixth largest wireline and 
wireless company in the world, a Fortune 500 company with 26,000 
employees worldwide serving 8 million communications customers. Many 
have contributed to ALLTEL's success in the American marketplace, but 
clearly it has been Joe Ford's vision and leadership that has brought 
the company to this level.
  I will also pause to note that, throughout his career, Joe Ford has 
been the very embodiment of the engaged corporate citizen. In 1966, 
while serving as a vice-president for Allied Telephone, Joe ran for a 
seat in the Arkansas Senate. He served in this body from 1967 to 1982, 
a term spanning the administrations of five governors. A longtime 
advocate for public education, Joe chaired the Senate Education 
Committee, where he worked to improve our state's educational system 
and helped to create the kindergarten program in Arkansas public 
schools. He has also been involved with numerous civic organizations.
  Joe Ford once offered the following words of advice to his son: ``In 
all that you do in life, seek to make life better for others, work hard 
and honestly, be a man of strong character, humble in times of 
greatness, and try to leave things a little better than they were left 
to you.'' His record certainly indicates that he has lived by these 
words himself. On the occasion of Joe's retirement, I'm proud to pay 
tribute to an Arkansan whose every move has represented the ideals of 
the American business world: trust, responsibility, hard work, and the 
greater public good. I hope that all of our business leaders will 
follow Joe's example in adhering to these ideals.

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