Robin Carroll Ford

Robin Carroll Ford was born at Swedish-American Hospital in Rockford, Illinois on July 28, 1940, and became the adopted son of Carroll and Roberta Ford of Rockford, Illinois. Throughout childhood and adolescence, he attended Catholic parochial grade and high schools. After high school he entered a Roman Catholic seminary attached to Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. He left the seminary two years later but stayed in Dubuque and obtained his bachelor’s degree in January 1961. The following fall, he entered the University at Rochester, New York, as a Public Health Fellow in Clinical Psychology where he obtained his master’s degree and worked as a school psychologist in upstate New York. He married Mary Anne Kehoe in 1963 and had three children; Nicholas Robin, Paula Bridgid (dearly departed), and Alexander Curran. Following a move to Chicago, Illinois, he continued work as a school psychologist, working part time at Children's Memorial Hospital. In 1967 he enrolled as a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, leaving three years later in the midst of on-campus student protests. He finished his doctorate at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb in 1972 and became a licensed clinical psychologist in Illinois. Following a divorce, he married Jessica Lyle and had a son; Aaron Benjamin. Robin taught at two medical schools early in his career. The first position, at Northwestern University, was with first year psychiatric residents and focused on interviewing techniques with children and adolescents. The second teaching position was at the Chicago Medical School - University of Health Sciences where he lectured on child development to third year medical students. It was the mid-1970's and classes were so rowdy that they once lit a large paper airplane on fire and sailed it across the auditorium. He also co-authored fourteen articles which were published in scholarly journals based on research reports on childhood friendships, honesty and relationships with parents. One article dealt with the effects of carrier status on the parents of children with phenylketonuria and was published in Lancet, a British journal. His work as a psychologist took him in several directions, and by 1978 he left Illinois to work for the National Institute of Corrections U.S. Department of Justice providing technical assistance and managerial teaching to jails and prisons nationwide. Following this three year inter-governmental loan, he moved with his family to St. Simon's Island, Georgia for five years, where he obtained a Georgia psychological license and began a private practice. After a divorce, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona in 1986, to work for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. In the early Summer of 1986 he met his wife, Karin Larsen Belnap. They were married in her hometown of Odense, Denmark on December 3, 1986. He worked for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for sixteen years and left in 2002 to go into full time private practice as both a clinical psychologist and as a neuropsychologist. Finally, in 2017, he was asked to join Neurological Associates of the East Valley in Chandler, Arizona where he finished his career and retired in 2018. He and Karin have enjoyed every aspect of their life together, particularly traveling to and from Denmark and throughout the world. He is survived by his wife; Karin Ford, children; Nicholas Robin Ford, Alexander Curran Ford, Mark Stuart Belnap, Stacey Loraine Belnap, Kenneth Roger Belnap, Aaron Benjamin Ford, twenty grandchildren and six great grandchildren. A celebration of life will be held Saturday, January 20, 2024, from 3:00 p.m.- 4:00 p.m. at the Winchester Hills LDS Chapel located at 5338 N. Winchester Drive, St. George, Utah 84770. Zoom link for service - https://zoom.us/j/95953585052

Robin Carroll Ford

July 8, 1940 - January 12, 2024