Writer Aida Rivera Ford, pride of Davao City, dies short of 100th birthday

MANILA, Philippines – Filipina writer Aida Rivera Ford, who is best known for literary works Love in the Cornhusks and The Chieftest Mourner, died on Sunday, January 18, at the age of 99.

Ford’s death came just days before her 100th birthday on January 22.

Born in Jolo, Sulu, in 1926, Ford graduated cum laude with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in English from Silliman University in Dumaguete City, Negros Oriental, in 1949.

Together with Cesar Amigo in 1948, Ford co-founded the university’s Sands and Coral, which stands as the longest-running student-led literary publication in the country. 

Ford, whose collection of essays and short stories were published in books Now and at the Hour and Other Stories (1958) and Born in the Year 1900 and Other Stories (1997), received various accolades throughout her career.

In 1993, she was given the Outstanding Sillimanian Award for Literature and Creative Writing and was named a national fellow for fiction by the University of the Philippines Creative Writing Center. 

Ford also co-founded the Learning Center of the Arts, which was later renamed Ford Academy of the Arts, in Davao City in 1980 and was a founding member of the Davao Writers Guild. 

She made Davao City her home and received the Datu Bago Award, the highest honor given by the city to outstanding individuals. – Rappler.com