From Joe Kahn:

Ford Fraker '71 died over Labor Day weekend after suffering a massive stroke while on Nantucket, where he owned a summer home. Many of you may have seen Ford, who lived in Cohasset, MA, at our 45th Reunion last October. I had spent time with him even more recently in June, at our 50th reunion at Phillips Academy (Andover), where he seemed in fine shape, physically and otherwise. So his death just a couple of months later is both shocking and sobering, to say the least.

After Harvard, where he played varsity ice hockey and graduated magna cum laude, Ford carved out a long career in international banking, finance, and diplomacy, primarily in the Middle East. In 2007, President George W. Bush appointed him U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, a position he continued to hold under President Barack Obama until April 2009. At the time of his death, Ford was serving as President of the Middle East Policy Council and

Chairman of Merrill Lynch Saudi Arabia. He kept up a grueling travel schedule as well, maintaining offices in Riyadh and Dubai and spending at least one week per month bouncing among various Middle East capitals.

Whatever one's perspective on evolving U.S.-Saudi relations -- my own political views did not align closely with his, I suspect -- Ford was a major player for a very long time. He was also thoughtful, humble, wise, and surprisingly funny, given the circles in which he operated professionally. He leaves a wife, Linda, and three children, Antonia (HR-'09) Jonathan, and Charlie. I am told there will be a memorial service for Ford at Harvard sometime this winter.

In a tribute to a deceased Andover classmate of ours, Ford recently wrote this: "Over the years, we have all lost friends and family. It may be a cliché, but I believe that people haven't really gone when they are remembered.” Among those who knew him, Ford will long be remembered.