State senator dies after long-term battle with cancer

INDIANAPOLIS – State Sen. David Ford died Wednesday at age 59 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.\nFord, a Republican from Hartford City, died at his home, Senate officials said. Ford had been absent from the Senate since January, when his family confirmed he was critically ill with cancer.\nSenators planned a moment of silence for Ford Wednesday afternoon.\n“Words cannot take away the sense of loss his family and friends are feeling at this hour, but it is important that they know he and they are in our hearts and minds,” said Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne.\nFord was the Blackford County prosecutor before being elected to the Senate in 1994. He represented District 19, which includes all or parts of Adams, Allen, Blackford, Grant and Wells counties in northeastern Indiana.\nRepublican Rep. Jeff Espich of Uniondale, who was a close friend of Ford’s and visited him often after he became ill, said he was heartsick about the death.\nHe said Ford was a good, honest man whose Senate colleagues called him “the road warrior because he was always out on the road doing town meetings and visiting constituents.”\nThe General Assembly lost “far and away the best expert on technology issues, as it relates to education and operation of government,” Espich said. “He was far ahead of anyone in terms of those kinds of issues.”\nGov. Mitch Daniels ordered flags at the Statehouse to be flown at half-staff through the day of the funeral.\n“I haven’t met a more insightful or harder working member of the General Assembly,” Daniels said of Ford. “I’m not sure a person like Dave Ford can be replaced.”\nFord, who did not miss a single vote in the Senate last year, had not been in the Senate since Jan. 15. On Feb. 21, he wrote a letter to the editor thanking his constituents for their support, e-mails, cards and prayers.