Lester Randolph Ford Jr. (September 23, 1927 – February 26, 2017) was an American mathematician specializing in network flow problems.
Golomb wrote, "This book is an attractive, well-written account of a fairly new topic in pure and applied combinatorial analysis.
For higher education he considered Harvard and Oberlin Conservatory, but chose the University of Chicago which provided him a scholarship.
The Defense Research Corporation of Goleta, California employed him for forty years as he kept pace with digital revolution.
With his first wife, Janet Johnson, he had nine children, including Fred Ford, programmer of the Star Control Universe.