John Hooper "Jack" Ford, 1876-1963, was born in Chulmleigh, Devonshire, England. He worked for the Prudential Insurance Company, 1898-1911, and operated the Castle Hotel in Barnstaple. He emigrated to Calgary, Alberta in 1911, to join his brother Harry, who had come to Canada in 1906. He briefly operated Clarke, Ford and Company, an insurance and financial agency. Ford was closely associated with William Irvine at the Unitarian Church.

In February 1916 he and Irvine organized the People's Forum, a centre of progressive thought and discussion in Calgary. In late 1916 he and Irvine set up a bi-monthly newspaper, the Nutcracker, which became the Alberta Non-Partisan in 1917, and the Western Independent in 1918. Irvine was the editor, and Ford was the business manager. The newspapers aimed to raise the political consciousness of Albertans, and to promote the farmer-labour political movement in the province, through the espousal of the programs of the Alberta Non-Partisan League and the United Farmers of Alberta political arm. After the Western Independent folded, Ford worked for the Albertan newspaper until his retirement in the late 1940s.

He was married twice, first to Susan, whom he married in 1903. After her death in about 1939, he married his former housekeeper, Lucy, 1884-1985. He had no children.