Jack Ford will be remembered, properly, as Toledo’s first African-American mayor — a distinction that was realized later here than in many comparable American cities. But the sum of Mr. Ford’s contributions to this community, in elective office and out of it, far exceeded his considerable achievements in that position.

Mr. Ford, who died over the weekend at age 67, also held important posts on Toledo City Council and the Toledo Board of Education, and in the General Assembly, during a career of public service that spanned four decades. He helped cultivate an emerging generation of public officials in the region and state.

As Toledo’s mayor from 2002 through 2005, Mr. Ford pursued principled positions that at times generated controversy. His background in public health led him to promote the creation of CareNet, an ahead-of-its time program of health care for uninsured Toledoans. It also caused him to advocate a ban on indoor smoking in the city, an initiative that voters later adopted statewide.

Mr. Ford worked hard to ensure that minority and women contractors got a fair share of municipal business, even when that advocacy threatened to disrupt cozy arrangements at One Government Center. He took a special interest in Toledo’s young people, working to get them jobs, keep them out of trouble, and even help them start businesses of their own.

A self-identified Democrat for much of his career, Mr. Ford sought to work across party lines in Toledo and as minority leader in the Ohio House. His appreciation of the value of bipartisan compromise is not much in evidence these days, in the Statehouse or City Hall, replaced by winner-take-all partisanship. Mr. Ford made a priority of pursuing regional government initiatives in northwest Ohio, a good idea whose time largely still has not come here because of political parochialism.

Mr. Ford’s broad background in health care, social work, and substance abuse treatment enabled him to make credible proposals for addressing the epidemic of heroin and opioid addiction in Toledo and across the state. His City Council colleagues would pay him appropriate tribute by working to carry out Mr. Ford’s sound proposals, some of which emerged from his leadership decades ago of Substance Abuse Services Inc.

Mr. Ford also taught politics and African-American studies at the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University. His professional and political careers included much useful work on behalf of minority, elderly, and disadvantaged Toledoans.

Health problems limited Mr. Ford’s activities in the years after he left the mayor’s office. But his commitment to public service remained strong — and is still a vital model to his actual and would-be successors in Toledo government, as well as an enduring legacy.

First Published March 24, 2015, 4:00 a.m.