NY Daily News

As he was leaving for what would turn out to be a false alarm, Ford, 44, collapsed in the firehouse he was supposed to retire out of after 20 years in busy companies in the South Bronx.

His daughter, Eileen, who was 15 at the time, clearly remembers rushing to Jacobi Medical Center on that hot day and seeing the Ladder 50 fire rig her father used to ride parked outside. His fellow firefighters stood around it, avoiding eye contact with her.

Eileen and her two brothers, William, 16, and Kevin, 17, and their mother, Margaret, faced a life ahead without a father and husband.

But the Ford children were able to go to college with the help of the Silver Shield Foundation, a charity for the families of cops and firefighters who've died in the line of duty.

The Fords were one of the first families helped by the foundation, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

The long-running organization came about in a very spontaneous way.

In the spring of 1982, Jim Fuchs, an Olympic shot put medalist, was having lunch with his friend, Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who told him about seeing a police officer's funeral, and the officer's four children standing by the coffin.

"George asked, 'How will those kids get an education?'" Fuchs recalled. "Then he turned to me and told me to start a foundation.

"I got a hundred guys to give a thousand dollars each, and George said he would donate the net proceeds of one game a year."

The first benefit game was in April 1982, Reggie Jackson's first game back at Yankee Stadium since he left for the Angels, and there were 55,000 people jamming the ballpark.

So the foundation had $157,000 at the start to provide scholarships for the children of fallen city cops and firefighters.

It has expanded over the years to include Port Authority police, the Emergency Medical Service and state troopers in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The foundation helped about 130 families from its inception until Sept. 11, 2001, when suddenly "there were 700 children for us to help," said Fuchs, the organization's president.

And the mission came to include much more than funds for education. With the singular horror of the World Trade Center catastrophe, the children of the uniformed victims had to contend with nightmares, talk of body parts recovered and fears of terror mastermind Osama Bin Laden attacking again.

"So we provided counseling services," Fuchs said.

But back when William Ford died, grief counseling was not a widespread concept, especially for children. But the Ford kids say they found some comfort in the foundation.

"During the holidays, they always made sure we got a little something extra," said Eileen Ford, who graduated from Iona College with a Silver Shield scholarship and works in employment recruiting.

"They'd send us turkeys or hams. They'd have events. We'd go to baseball games," she said. "They offered us a lot of help."

"Aside from the financial aid, they made us feel like we were still part of the firefighting family. We were not cut adrift," Kevin Ford said. "They helped us through a tough time.

"And they tried to make you feel special," he said.

Such as when he threw out the first ball at a Yankees game the year after his father died.

"It was overwhelming. ... I got to sit in the dugout with the players," Kevin Ford said.

Kevin Ford also graduated from Iona with a Silver Shield scholarship, majoring in business.

Thirteen years ago he became a firefighter with the Yonkers Fire Department and is now a lieutenant.

His sister said she has volunteered with the foundation to talk to families of injured or deceased firefighters in their time of need. Fuchs said she is one of a number of youngsters helped by the foundation who wants to give back.

Margaret Ford said that though no one on the job today would remember her husband, "The Silver Shields keep reminding you you're still part of this big family."