STOP PRESS
November 2013 – Peter Ford recognised as the National Finalist Senior Australian of the Year 2014.
Peter will now go join into the list of other states winners to be considered for the one overall Australian Of the Year, that will be announced at Government House Canberra on Australia Day, 26th January 2014.
Click here to see a great interview with Peter
Good luck Peter!
Original Post (July 2013)
I mention the Ford Family on page 311 of my book QF32 .
Coral and I took refuge in Simon and Julie Ford’s house when we returned to Sydney and discovered that our house was surrounded by the press. We could receive no solace at home.
Coral and I will always be indebted to Simon and Julie Ford, We stayed at their house in three days for three days until our neighbors informed us that the media had given up, departed and that it was safe for us to return to our home.
But there’s more.
Peter Ford
Simon’s brother Peter Ford is also an intelligent, kind and passionate soul. I would find that he would provide a large part in my recovery after the QF32 event.
Peter Ford and his partner (Sally Loane) helped prepare Coral and me for the media after the event, trained us how to not embarrass ourselves during media interviews, and finally helped us edit the final drafts of QF32.
Peter has a separate story as a journalist, NASA and War correspondent, CNN anchor, author and finally as a software (mechatronic) engineer and founder of the company ControlBionics that supplies the remarkable bionic software called NeuroSwitch.
Peter’s story was encapsulated then published today by ABC Australian Radio AM 702 in the Richard Fidler’s excellent interview. Click here to hear Richard Fidler’s 45 minute interview of Peter Ford.
Neil Armstrong, Peter Ford, Sally Loane on Sydney Harbour, August 2011
Richard’s interview of Peter Ford encapsulates:
Human (bionic) automated control (helping the disabled)
CNN history
Clu Clux Clan (thumb nails and fear)
From Russia with Love
Iraq -Gulf War (dinner with Tariq Aziz)
Desert Storm (from a reporter’s perspective)
Aboriginal spiritual-cultural beliefs (Yami Lester)
Neil Armstrong (correcting the world’s record of Neil’s famous statement)
Apple computer history and early computing
Warning – do not listen to this interview while driving, for if you do, then you will want to pull over, stop, then concentrate on every word and story.
Our lives are measured and enriched by the people that we meet along our journey. Peter Ford is one person that we all need to meet and chat with. Indeed Peter is one of life’s truly “weird” people that colour our lives and makes our world continue to turn. (I use “wierd” in the nicest of ways. Click here for a wonderful need for “weird“)
In our new flatter Earth with converged divergent and disruptive technologies, we have lost the free time to relax, listen, then consider our past and rethink what we hold sacred as our core values and beliefs. Peter’s interview will engender primal and poignant reflections of where we are we have come from, where we are and where we might be headed.
As a reporter, Peter has touched us all. Through NeuroSwitch, he has helped the disabled. Society will judge him as the the exemplar for our culture.
Enjoy!
http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/local/brisbane/conversations/201308/r1157922_14574028.mp3
Oh, by the way, if you want more, Peter and Sally were recently celebrated by the ABC’s Australian Story.
QF32 