Ford - Dillender

FORT LEAVENWORTH, Kan. -- Susannah Playford Ford and Lt. Cmdr. Michael Joseph Dillender were united in marriage during an 11 a.m. ceremony Nov. 11, 2006, at Memorial Chapel in Fort Leavenworth. The Revs. Anthony Felich and Nathan Currey, pastors of Reedeemer Presbyterian Church in Overland Park, officiated.

The bride is the daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. Jonathan T. Ford Sr. of Estes Park, Colo. Parents of the bridegroom are Mr. and Mrs. Michael Dillender of Bertrand, Mo.

Music for the occasion was provided by organist Valerie Koetting. Matron of honor was Jennifer Paustenbaugh of Stillwater, Okla., sister of the bride; and best man was William Rock Elgin of Nashville, Tenn.

A reception followed at the Leavenworth Country Club.

A graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1994, Mrs. Dillender graduated with a Doctor of Medicine in 1998 from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Medicine. She is a neonatologist at The Children's Mercy Hospitals and Clinics in Kansas City, Mo.

Dillender is a graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1994; George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where he earned a Master of Business Administration in 2002; and the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth in 2006. He is slated to be the executive officer of Pre-Commissioning Unit NEW YORK (LPD-21), which is under construction in New Orleans.

The couple will reside in Millington, Tenn.; Norfolk, Va.; and Newport, R.I., for temporary assignments before moving to New Orleans in August. Once USS NEW YORK (LPD-21) is commissioned in 2008, they will reside in Norfolk.