Gerald R. Ford
Thirty-Eigth President 1974-1977
Gerald Rudolph Ford, the 38th President of the United States,
was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., the son of Leslie Lynch King and Dorothy Ayer
Gardner King, on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. His parents separated two
weeks after his birth and his mother took him to Grand Rapids, Michigan to live
with her parents. On February 1, 1916, approximately two years after her divorce
was final, Dorothy King married Gerald R. Ford, a Grand Rapids paint salesman.
The Fords began calling her son Gerald R. Ford, Jr., although his name was not
legally changed until December 3, 1935. He had known since he was thirteen years
old that Gerald Ford, Sr., was not his biological father, but it was not until
1930 when Leslie King made an unexpected stop in Grand Rapids that he had a
chance meeting with this biological father. The future president grew up in a
close-knit family which included three younger half-brothers, Thomas, Richard,
and James.
Ford attended South High School in Grand Rapids, where he excelled
scholastically and athletically, being named to the honor society and the
"All-City" and "All-State" football teams. He was also active in scouting,
achieving the rank of Eagle Scout in November 1927. He earned spending money by
working in the family paint business and at a local restaurant.
From 1931 to 1935 Ford attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, where
he majored in economics and political science. He graduated with a B.A. degree
in June 1935. He financed his education with part-time jobs, a small scholarship
from his high school, and modest family assistance. A gifted athlete, Ford
played on the University's national championship football teams in 1932 and
1933. He was voted the Wolverine's most valuable player in 1934 and on January
1, 1935, played in the annual East-West College All-Star game in San Francisco,
for the benefit of the Shrine Crippled Children's Hospital. In August 1935 he
played in the Chicago Tribune College All-Star football game at Soldier Field
against the Chicago Bears.
H0035-1 - Gerald Ford at the University of Michigan, with fellow football
players Russell Fuog, Chuck Bernard, Herman Everhardus, and Stan Fay, 1934.
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He received offers from two professional football teams, the Detroit Lions and
the Green Bay Packers, but chose instead to take a position as boxing coach and
assistant varsity football coach at Yale hoping to attend law school there.
Among those he coached were future U.S. Senators Robert Taft, Jr. and William
Proxmire. Yale officials initially denied him admission to the law school,
because of his full-time coaching responsibilities, but admitted him in the
spring of 1938. Ford earned his LL.B. degree in 1941, graduating in the top 25
percent of his class in spite of the time he had to devote to his coaching
duties. His introduction to politics came in the summer of 1940 when he worked
in Wendell Willkie's presidential campaign.
After returning to Michigan and passing his bar exam, Ford and a University of
Michigan fraternity brother, Philip A. Buchen (who later served on Ford's White
House staff as Counsel to the President), set up a law partnership in Grand
Rapids. He also taught a course in business law at the University of Grand
Rapids and served as line coach for the school's football team. He had just
become active in a group of reform-minded Republicans in Grand Rapids, calling
themselves the Home Front, who were interested in challenging the hold of local
political boss Frank McKay, when the United States entered World War II.
In April 1942 Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve receiving a commission as an
ensign. After an orientation program at Annapolis, he became a physical fitness
instructor at a pre- flight school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In the spring
of 1943 he began service in the light aircraft carrier USS MONTEREY. He was
first assigned as athletic director and gunnery division officer, then as
assistant navigator, with the MONTEREY which took part in most of the major
operations in the South Pacific, including Truk, Saipan, and the Philippines.
His closest call with death came not as a result of enemy fire, however, but
during a vicious typhoon in the Philippine Sea in December 1944. He came within
inches of being swept overboard while the storm raged. The ship, which was
severely damaged by the storm and the resulting fire, had to be taken out of
service. Ford spent the remainder of the war ashore and was discharged as a
lieutenant commander in February 1946.
H0038-3 - Gerald Ford campaigning with farmers, 1948
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When he returned to Grand Rapids Ford became a partner in the locally
prestigious law firm of Butterfield, Keeney, and Amberg. A self-proclaimed
compulsive "joiner," Ford was well-known throughout the community. Ford has
stated that his experiences in World War II caused him to reject his previous
isolationist leanings and adopt an internationalist outlook. With the
encouragement of his stepfather, who was county Republican chairman, the Home
Front, and Senator Arthur Vandenberg, Ford decided to challenge the isolationist
incumbent Bartel Jonkman for the Republican nomination for the U.S. House of
Representatives in the 1948 election. He won the nomination by a wide margin and
was elected to Congress on November 2, receiving 61 percent of the vote in the
general election.
During the height of the campaign Gerald Ford married Elizabeth Anne Bloomer
Warren, a department store fashion consultant. They were to have four children:
Michael Gerald, born March 14, 1950; John Gardner, born March 16, 1952; Steven
Meigs, born May 19, 1956; and Susan Elizabeth, born July 6, 1957.
Gerald Ford served in the House of Representatives from January 3, 1949 to
December 6, 1973, being reelected twelve times, each time with more than 60% of
the vote. He became a member of the House Appropriations Committee in 1951, and
rose to prominence on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, becoming its
ranking minority member in 1961. He once described himself as "a moderate in
domestic affairs, an internationalist in foreign affairs, and a conservative in
fiscal policy."
As his reputation as a legislator grew, Ford declined offers to run for both the
Senate and the Michigan governorship in the early 1950s. His ambition was to
become Speaker of the House. In 1960 he was mentioned as a possible running mate
for Richard Nixon in the presidential election. In 1961, in a revolt of the
"Young Turks," a group of younger, more progressive House Republicans who felt
that the older leadership was stagnating, Ford defeated sixty-seven year old
Charles Hoeven of Iowa for Chairman of the House Republican Conference, the
number three leadership position in the party.
In 1963 President Johnson appointed Ford to the Warren Commission investigating
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In 1965 Ford co-authored, with
John R. Stiles, a book about the findings of the Commission, Portrait of the
Assassin.
The battle for the 1964 Republican nomination for president was drawn on
ideological lines, but Ford avoided having to choose between Nelson Rockefeller
and Barry Goldwater by standing behind Michigan favorite son George Romney.
In 1965 Ford was chosen by the Young Turks as their best hope to challenge
Charles Halleck for the position of minority leader of the House. He won by a
small margin and took over the position early in 1965, holding it for eight
years.
Ford led Republican opposition to many of President Johnson's programs, favoring
more conservative alternatives to his social welfare legislation and opposing
Johnson's policy of gradual escalation in Vietnam. As minority leader Ford made
more than 200 speeches a year all across the country, a circumstance which made
him nationally known.
AV82-31-502 - Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and other members of the Chowder and
Marching club at a meeting celebrating Mr. Ford's becoming Minority Leader,
February 24, 1965.
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In both the 1968 and 1972 elections Ford was a loyal supporter of Richard Nixon,
who had been a friend for many years. In 1968 Ford was again considered as a
vice presidential candidate. Ford backed the President's economic and foreign
policies and remained on good terms with both the conservative and liberal wings
of the Republican party.
Because the Republicans did not attain a majority in the House, Ford was unable
to reach his ultimate political goal--to be Speaker of the House. Ironically, he
did become president of the Senate. When Spiro Agnew resigned the office of Vice
President of the United States late in 1973, after pleading no contest to a
charge of income tax evasion, President Nixon was empowered by the 25th
Amendment to appoint a new vice president. Presumably, he needed someone who
could work with Congress, survive close scrutiny of his political career and
private life, and be confirmed quickly. He chose Gerald R. Ford. Following the
most thorough background investigation in the history of the FBI, Ford was
confirmed and sworn in on December 6, 1973.
A0004-10 - Gerald R. Ford is sworn in as the 38th President of the United States
by Chief Justice Warren Burger as Mrs. Ford looks on, August 9, 1974.
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The specter of the Watergate scandal, the break-in at Democratic headquarters
during the 1972 campaign and the ensuing cover-up by Nixon administration
officials, hung over Ford's nine-month tenure as vice president. When it became
apparent that evidence, public opinion, and the mood in Congress were all
pointing toward impeachment, Nixon became the first president in U.S. history to
resign from that office.
Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office as President of the United States on
August 9, 1974, stating that "the long national nightmare is over. Our
Constitution works."
Within the month Ford nominated Nelson Rockefeller for vice president. On
December 19, 1974, Rockefeller was confirmed by Congress, over the opposition of
many conservatives, and the country had a full complement of leaders again.
One of the most difficult decisions of Ford's presidency was made just a month
after he took office. Believing that protracted impeachment proceedings would
keep the country mired in Watergate and unable to address the other problems
facing it, Ford decided to grant a pardon to Richard Nixon prior to the filing
of any formal criminal charges. Public reaction was mostly negative; Ford was
even suspected of having made a "deal" with the former president to pardon him
if he would resign. The decision may have cost him the election in 1976, but
President Ford always maintained that it was the right thing to do for the good
of the country.
President Ford inherited an administration plagued by a divisive war in
Southeast Asia, rising inflation, and fears of energy shortages. He faced many
difficult decisions including replacing Nixon's staff with his own, restoring
the credibility of the presidency, and dealing with a Congress increasingly
assertive of its rights and powers.
In domestic policy, President Ford felt that through modest tax and spending
cuts, deregulating industries, and decontrolling energy prices to stimulate
production, he could contain both inflation and unemployment. This would also
reduce the size and role of the federal government and help overcome the energy
shortage. His philosophy was best summarized by one of his favorite speech
lines, "A government big enough to give us everything we want is a government
big enough to take from us everything we have." The heavily Democratic Congress
often disagreed with Ford, leading to numerous confrontations and his frequent
use of the veto to control government spending. Through compromise, bills
involving energy decontrol, tax cuts, deregulation of the railroad and
securities industries, and antitrust law reform were approved.
In foreign policy, Ford and Secretary of State Kissinger continued the policy of
detente with the Soviet Union and "shuttle diplomacy" in the Middle East.
U.S.-Soviet relations were marked by on-going arms negotiations, the Helsinki
agreements on human rights principles and East European national boundaries,
trade negotiations, and the symbolic Apollo-Soyuz joint manned space flight.
Ford's personal diplomacy was highlighted by trips to Japan and China, a 10-day
European tour, and co-sponsorship of the first international economic summit
meeting, as well as the reception of numerous foreign heads of state, many of
whom came in observance of the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.
A2092-3A - President Ford and Soviet General Secretary Leonid I. Brezhnev sign a
Joint Communique following talks on the limitation of strategic offensive arms
in the conference hall of the Okeansky Sanitarium, Vladivostok, USSR, November
24, 1974.
(Full size image is 41K)
With the fall of South Vietnam in 1975 as background, Congress and the President
struggled repeatedly over presidential war powers, oversight of the CIA and
covert operations, military aid appropriations, and the stationing of military
personnel.
On May 14, 1975, in a dramatic move, Ford ordered U.S. forces to retake the S.S.
MAYAGUEZ, an American merchant ship seized by Cambodian gunboats two days
earlier in international waters. The vessel was recovered and all 39 crewmen
saved. In the preparation and execution of the rescue, however, 41 Americans
lost their lives.
On two separate trips to California in September 1975, Ford was the target of
assassination attempts. Both of the assailants were women -- Lynette "Squeaky"
Fromme and Sara Jane Moore.
During the 1976 campaign, Ford fought off a strong challenge by Ronald Reagan to
gain the Republican nomination. He chose Senator Robert Dole of Kansas as his
running mate and succeeded in narrowing Democrat Jimmy Carter's large lead in
the polls, but finally lost one of the closest elections in history. Three
televised candidate debates were focal points of the campaign.
Upon returning to private life, President and Mrs. Ford moved to California
where they built a new house in Rancho Mirage. President Ford's memoir, A Time
to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford, was published in 1979.
After leaving office, President Ford continued to actively participate in the
political process and to speak out on important political issues. He lectured at
hundreds of colleges and universities, on such issues as Congressional/White
House relations, federal budget policies, and domestic and foreign policy
issues. He attended the annual Public Policy Week Conferences of the American
Enterprise Institute, and in 1982 established the AEI World Forum, which he
hosted for many years in Vail/Beaver Creek, Colorado. This was an international
gathering of former and current world leaders and business executives to discuss
political and business policies impacting current issues.
In 1981, the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and the Gerald R.
Ford Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan, were dedicated. President Ford
participated in conferences at either site dealing with such subjects as the
Congress, the presidency and foreign policy; Soviet-American relations; German
reunification, the Atlantic Alliance, and the future of American foreign policy;
national security requirements for the ‘90s; humor and the presidency; and the
role of First Ladies.
The former President was the recipient of numerous awards and honors by many
civic organizations. He was also the recipient of many honorary Doctor of Law
degrees from various public and private colleges and universities.
President Ford died on December 26, 2006 at his home in Rancho Mirage,
California. After ceremonies in California, Washington, and Grand Rapids, he was
interred on the grounds of the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids.
Click on the Photo of the President Below to go to his page.
