Family History and Roots

___________________A Six Generation Columbian

__________________________A Family History of Politics, Participation and Service

___________________________________ A Family to be Proud of

_______________________________________A Personal History

My family has been leaders and employer to this community for six generations starting in 1799. The Fords and the Rawls families came by wagon from Columbia, Marion County, North Carolina.

My great great great grandfather, Joseph Ford, forded Andrew Jackson's Army across the Pearl River in 1815 and was the brother of John Ford, of the John Ford Home.

My great grandfather, General T. S. Ford helped draft the 1890 Constitution of Mississippi, was an Attorney Generals of Mississippi, and had planned to run for Governor when he died of Malaria.

My family gave the land for the Old Cemetery, the Baptist Church, the Methodist Church, and the Columbia Elementary School.

My great, grandmother's family helped start the Citizens Bank and gave the property the mainstreet bank now stands.

My great uncle, Eb Ford was the first Rhodes Scholar from Mississippi, finished first in class of 5000 at Cambridge, England and took his exam in Greek.

My grandfather was the fire chief, an alderman and his brother T. C. Griffith was Mayor, starting the T C Griffith Insurnace Agency..

My Uncle Tom Griffith died in World War II training as a fight er pilot. My Uncle was Sedgie Griffith, owner and operator of Flynt Wholesale. My father, Ray Griffith was an inventor and established the Ray Griffith Company which is now over fifty years in business.

My personal businesses have been in operation and an employer on Martin Luther King Drive since 1969. I began my preparation in undoubtedly the finest life preparatory school in America, the Columbia School System. I lettered in football and basketball. I attended the Mississippi State University, majoring in management with minors in finance, economics, and accounting. I am a Father. I am a Methodist. I am a Sigma Chi. I am a sportsman I am a Democrat. I am an avid reader of literature and history. .

I served my country during the Vietnam Era, first serving four years in the Officers Training Corp at Mississippi State University and serving active duty at Fort Bragg, home of the Eighty- Second Airborne and Fort Belvoir, Washington, D.C. for six years with the Mississippi National Guard, for a total time of ten years.

I am sixty one years of age and I have been in business for forty years, starting in 1969. I started the Woodstock Toy Company, a manufacturer of fine wooden toys, Custom Powder Coaters, a high tech metal finishing business and Pecans, Etc., a distributor of pecan produces. I managed a family manufacturing business, The Ray Griffith Co., expanding the facility; developing high speed feeds technology and metal finishing operations, a research and development facility, expanding sales west of the Mississippi River, establishing accounts with major distributors, Ace Hardware and TruValue.

I am proficient in over thirty different software programs, developing graphics, web sites, financial, management and marketing programs.

I am a nationally recognized artist, entertaining millions of patrons over my career with exhibitions in major art centers including, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Beau Art Museum, and Columbia University, New York.

I have traveled extensively in the United States and Europe living in New Orleans and outside of New York City for a number of years.