Speaker Retraces Path of Gen. Patton, Local Hero

Clean-shaven, clad in a suit and tie and with hair neatly coiffed, Steve Ford provided a welcome break from the sometimes comical Zoom world infamous for all-day sweat clothes and bad beards.
The recently retired San Marino High School history teacher was last week’s keynote speaker at a virtual meeting of the Rotary Club of San Marino, where he had been asked to address the fertile topic of illustrious local citizen George Patton. Or is that fabled United States Army Gen. George S. Patton?
As Ford would soon imply and the viewer would later deduce, the answer is probably “Both.”
“Although I am not a Patton expert, I really enjoy digging into the lives of historical figures and enjoyed sharing them with my students,” said Ford.
For about an hour last Thursday, he launched into a presentation he titled “The Life and Times of San Marino’s Most Famous General.” No analysis of a figure as dynamic and controversial can be contained in one short sentence, so Ford added subcategories, which included “legendary leadership of the local variety.” He further divided his subject into three parts: local roots, the legend and his leadership. No matter how it was presented on the video marquee, Ford exceeded expectations.
“His life was incredible,” said Ford. “He lived for 60 years, but it was really the last three years of his life that made the biggest impact on many Americans, during the war.”
Displaying vintage photographs of a San Marino now unrecognizable, Ford showed an area that would later be known as Lacy Park, explaining how a man named Benjamin Wilson — the first official full-time mayor of Los Angeles — in 1854 purchased 1,328 acres of land that would in 1913 be called San Marino.
Ford displayed a photo of the familiar Patton home, dubbed Lake Vineyard, by Wilson, where George Patton Sr., the general’s namesake and father, moved in 1910. The 8,000-square-foot, three-story house was built for $20,000, according to Ford, but would fetch a much higher price in today’s market.
“Just in case you are interested, and I certainly was, I had to check,” said a smiling Ford. “It is currently valued on Zillow at $8.7 million.”
Though all screens were muted, the comment still elicited a visible response from meeting attendees.
Known to family and friends simply as “Georgie,” or “the boy,” Patton attended Church of Our Saviour and was considered a devout Christian. Ford displayed a saying attributed to Patton that is inscribed on the Lacy Park War Memorial: “Let me not mourn for men who have died fighting, but rather let me be glad that such heroes had lived.”
“He believed in reincarnation,” said Ford, again surprising viewers. “He believed he was a soldier in several lifetimes past. His heroes were soldiers.”
John Singleton Mosby, a Confederate cavalry battalion commander and survivor of the Civil War, would often visit the Pattons, and many believed that this is where George developed his love for horseback riding.
Ford again broke into a chuckle when informing Rotarians that Patton “was not known for his scholarship,” noting that he struggled with dyslexia. He was, rather, an “excellent athlete known for his great drive,” according to Ford.
That combination of skills helped him earn a spot on the 1912 Olympic team, for which he competed in the pentathlon, a multi-event activity that included fencing, riding and shooting, among other athletic pursuits. At the Stockholm Olympics, Patton finished in the event. A controversy ensued when judges ruled that Patton — who was using a .38 caliber firearm instead of the typical .22 pistol — had missed the target on one of his allotted shots. Patton claimed that two bullets must have passed through the same hole. He would have won the gold medal if it had been ruled that they had.
He loved tanks and was well decorated during his service in world wars I and II. In the second war, he was placed in command of all United States forces in North Africa, where he was described as “by the book” and responsible for “a tough new era” in military training and tactics.
“It’s hard to find a lot of favorable quotes or favorable sources,” said Ford. “The vast majority are critical of Patton. Omar Bradley didn’t really see Patton’s flair for the dramatic, but saw that as a liability.”
While touring a military hospital, Patton infamously struck a soldier who didn’t appear to have sufficient injuries to require hospitalization. He repeated the offense 10 days later, but was spared court-martial by his superiors, who called Patton “the most-feared general of all fronts,” according to Ford.
Some of his most notable service came during the Battle of the Bulge, where he was dubbed by the American press as “Blood and Guts” Patton.
Patton was mortally wounded when an automobile in which he was riding to a hunting trip collided with an American army truck in Germany. He died 12 days later with his wife, Beatrice, at his side.
“He said to his wife, ‘I guess I wasn’t good enough, wanted to die in battle,’” Ford said. “Patton believed that many of his predecessors had died in battle.”
Ford also mentioned Patton’s famed speeches and also mentioned the “contrast” in the personality of a man who would read the Bible, lead his men in prayer and then unleash profanity-filled tirades.
His leadership was above reproach, as Ford explained his military career in terms of a CEO and laid out his accomplishments in terms of railroads built, equipment transported and men moved.
During the question-and-answer segment of the meeting, Ford said that he doubted Patton would have gone into politics had he lived.
“He was a man of action,” said Ford. “He probably would have gotten involved in the Korean War.”
Ford is also a man of action, and is using his retirement to work towards a master’s degree in political science with an emphasis on national security.
“I haven’t really solidified my path,” said Ford.
When prompted by a question, Ford referred ruefully to “the way that history is being deemphasized or even altered” in schools.
“I feel that is a tragedy and I want our young people to understand what a great country we have,” said Ford. “Our past is pretty important.”