James Gordon Ferguson (1900-1985) was an electrical engineer who worked at Bell Telephone Laboratories for forty-two years. He was the author of numerous technical papers and was one of the leads during the 1940s in developing the Number Five Crossbar Switching System (5XB switch), which brought telephone service to rural areas and remained in use into the early 1990s. He also held patents for his work at Bell Labs.

Ferguson was born in Ashfield Township, Huron County, Ontario, to Elizabeth Glenn Ferguson (born 1862) and Reverend Charles Archibald Ferguson (1869-1938). He received his Bachelor of Sciences degree from Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, in 1923, and accepted a position at Northern Electric Co. (Bell Telephone of Canada) that year. In 1926, he moved to the United States to join the technical staff at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Rutherford, New Jersey, where he remained until his retirement in 1965.

By 1930, Ferguson had married New Jersey native Thelma Margaret (1907-1957). The couple had two children. In 1960, he married Jean Elizabeth Seal (1923-1990). Ferguson died in 1985 in Red Bank, New Jersey.