James Rumford: Hello, my name is James Rumford. When I was a kid, and even today, people think my name is made up of two words, rum and ford. I had a friend who even drew a picture of a bottle of rum and a broken down Ford car, in my high school yearbook. But my name is an old English name and really means a wide, roomy ford in a stream. A ford is a shallow place in a river, where you can cross without a bridge.

Many people make my name more complicated than it is. They call me Rumsford or Rumpford. Rumpford led to my nickname in elementary school, Rumpy. I still laugh when I think of that.