Craig Gifford Ford

CRAIG G FORD – WELFARE CHILD TO PROMINENT BANKER

Craig Gifford Ford, 96, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, passed away on September 9th, 2025. Mr. Ford was a one of a kind man who lived an incredible life in service to God and his fellow man.

The GI Bill offered to veterans of the Korean Police Action enabled Mr. Ford to leave behind his impoverished childhood in the streets of Philadelphia’s inner city. Mr. Ford used that GI Bill to complete the four year curriculum of the Wharton School of Finance and Commerce in three and one half years. He graduated #1 in the June 1956 Class, winning the Beta Gamma Sigma award for academic achievement and was selected as the Westinghouse Prize Scholar.

Ford joined the Mellon National Bank and Trust Co. in Pittsburgh as a management trainee and during a 31-year career ascended to the executive team of the then largest bank between New York City and Chicago. Mr. Ford became recognized as one of the innovators who revolutionized the staid banking industry from its pre-World War II attitudes.

In 1987, he joined a team of former Mellon Bank bankers at the Meridian Bancorp in Eastern Pennsylvania and entered the world of community banking.

In 1992, he established a community banking consulting practice stressing work with underperforming or troubled community banks, as well as assisting de novo banks. This practice covered strategic planning, merger and acquisition planning, as well as technology planning for future growth. This practice had a broad geographic base including Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. Recently, he served as chairman of Ameriserv Financial, Inc. in Johnstown , Pennsylvania. Ameriserv is one of only a dozen or so banks in the United States with a unionized workforce.

Mr. Ford was active in several banking industry organizations. He served as President of the Pennsylvania Bankers Association, as Chair of the Membership Criteria Committee of the American Bankers Association. Ford was also a member of the Finance council of the American Management Association and a frequent speaker at AMA banking conferences in the US and at the AMA Management Centre in Brussels, Belgium.

Craig Ford also served 10 years as the Treasurer of the Urban League of Pittsburgh and as Treasurer of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

Mr. Ford also has trained many banking executives who are scattered through the American financial industry. This was the most enjoyable result of Mr. Ford’s 68 years in banking.

Ford is survived by his son-in-law, John Ross; by his grandchildren, Craig Ross and Kelly Napier; and by great grandchildren, Christopher, Savannah, Kimberly, Logan, and Jolene. He was preceded in passing by his wife, Gerrie Walls Ford and by his daughter, Kerri Lynn Ross.

A funeral service will be held at 12:15 PM, Friday, October 3rd, 2025, WILLIAM SLATER II FUNERAL SERVICE, 1650 Greentree Rd., Scott Twp., 412-563-2800. Interment to follow in Mt. Lebanon Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Craig’s name can be made to the St. Clair Health Foundation, 1000 Bower Hill Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15243, www.stclair.org/giving/ways-to-give.

www.slaterfuneral.com