# Former President Gerald Ford Dies



## CJIS (Mar 12, 2005)

Former President Gerald Ford DiesAmerica's only unelected president passes away at age 93

Gerald R. Ford, the only unelected president in U.S. history, died in the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 26 (Wednesday morning KST), after a long series of ailments.

Gerald Ford took an unusual path to the White House, rising to the pinnacle of political power due to scandals within his own party. Ford was a Republican Party stalwart who spent 24 years representing Michigan in the House of Representatives, rising to the post of minority leader, when President Richard Nixon tapped him as Vice President to replace Spiro Agnew, who had resigned in a bribery scandal. Only six years earlier, the 25th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified to create the procedure by which Ford was selected.

On Aug. 9, 1974, Nixon became the first American president to resign, as a result of the Watergate scandal. As his first act of office, Ford granted Nixon a full and unconditional pardon, thus saving the ex-president from standing trial for crimes committed while in office. Critics at the time and since have questioned whether the pardon was part of a "corrupt bargain" to lift Ford to the presidency, and it is believed to have played a major role in his subsequent defeat by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election.

Chosen more for his inoffensiveness than his political acumen, Ford's tenure had the feel of a caretaker presidency. The signature event of his administration was the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, which put the final stamp on America's defeat in the Vietnam War. Ford overruled his Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, who wanted to respond militarily to North Vietnam's invasion, which he saw as a violation of the 1973 Paris Peace Accords that had ended the U.S. role in the war.

Perhaps the most lasting legacy of Ford's presidency was his nurturing of a couple of young turks who would go on to play prominent roles in the current administration of U.S. President George W. Bush. Ford appointed Donald Rumsfeld as his chief of staff, later making him the youngest secretary of defense in 1975, shy of his 43rd birthday. Under Bush, Rumsfeld would also become the oldest defense secretary before his resignation last November.
















Former President Gerald Ford, center, with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, left, and Chief of Staff Dick Cheney in theOval Office, April 28, 1975 ©2006

White HouseRumsfeld's replacement as Ford's chief of staff was Dick Cheney, who at only 35 was the youngest person in history to hold that post. The formative
experience of occupying cabinet posts at a time when American power seemed to be in retreat no doubt influenced the future neo-cons in their belief in an assertive U.S. military role.

During his presidency, Ford acquired a popular image of being likable but not too bright, reinforced by Chevy Chase's famous portrayals of him on "Saturday Night Live," which inevitably culminated in a pratfall.

Ford died only 6 weeks after surpassing Ronald Reagan to become America's longest lived former president.


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## Guest (Dec 27, 2006)

Could that article be any more slanted against the Republican party??


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## Mitpo62 (Jan 13, 2004)

Ford stepped up to the plate and took over at a time when things in this country were slowly flowing down the toilet (kind of like now?). For many, Ford was known as "the healer", bringing together a country again that was torn apart by the (criminal) actions of Nixon and Agnew. Sadly, Ford's pardon of Nixon probably cost him the election in '76. And yes, some of Ford's "trip ups" made for great skit material on SNL.


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## Oscar32 (Sep 20, 2006)

Rest in Peace Mr. President.

Long live the GOP


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## KozmoKramer (Apr 25, 2004)

*Ford Had a Wayward Way With Words*

I love the last paragraph of this piece.
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By KASIE HUNT, Associated Press Writer

He was a quiet, unassuming everyman, and it showed.
Gerald R. Ford, who died Tuesday night at 93, was the first president of the television era to wear his humanity on his sleeve, and his label as the "accidental president" was fitting: In 29 short months in the Oval Office, he earned a reputation for both physical and verbal gaffes.
Footage of him stumbling on the stairs of Air Force One, tumbling down a ski slope and bumping his head on a helicopter doorway gave TV news and comedy shows - particularly "Saturday Night Live" Ford impersonator Chevy Chase - plenty of fodder.
His errant golf shot was notorious among both spectators (he was captured on camera dinging at least one person with a golf ball) and the celebrities he shared carts with.
"He barely missed me a couple times. I wasn't sure if he was trying to hit me or not," golfer Arnold Palmer joked in an interview with The Associated Press. The four-time Masters winner said he played golf with Ford on the last day of his presidency.
Bob Hope, another golfing friend of Ford, once quipped: "It's not hard to find Jerry Ford on a golf course - you just follow the wounded."
As he teed off with former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, Ford promptly hit the ball into the crowd, grimacing and yelling, "Fore!"
Sometimes his words were errant, too.
"I always watch the Detroit Tigers on the radio," he once said. At a celebration for Lincoln's birthday, he told the audience: "If Lincoln were alive today, he'd roll over in his grave."
One of his most famous verbal gaffes helped Jimmy Carter win the presidency. "There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," Ford said during the second presidential debate in October 1976, still the height of the Cold War.
The audience gasped, but when the moderator gave Ford the opportunity to clarify his answer, he went on to say that Poland was "independent or autonomous."
Ford had a sense of humor about his golf game - "Back on my home course in Grand Rapids, Michigan, they don't yell "Fore!" they yell "Ford!'" he joked at a dinner at the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974.
In reality, he was one of the most athletic presidents in history. He played football for the University of Michigan, where his team won two national championships and he was named the 1934 Wolverines' most valuable player.
According to his 1979 memoir, "A Time to Heal: The Autobiography of Gerald R. Ford," he didn't enjoy jokes about his clumsiness.
"There was no doubt in my mind that I was the most athletic president to occupy the White House in years ... (but) every time I stumbled or bumped my head or fell in the snow, reporters zeroed in on that to the exclusion of almost everything else," he wrote. "The news coverage was harmful ... (and) helped create the public perception of me as a stumbler. And that wasn't funny."
But just as time has burnished his legacy as the nation's post-Watergate healer, Ford eventually warmed to the jokes. In 1986, he invited comedians - Chevy Chase included - and former presidential aides to a symposium on humor and the presidency.
_There, a decade after Chase left "SNL" and his stumbling Ford impersonation behind, Ford staged the last laugh: To open the second day's events, he stuck out his leg and tripped Chase._


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## kwflatbed (Dec 29, 2004)

*Nation's capital to pay high honors to Ford*

_*By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press writers *_

WASHINGTON - Gerald R. Ford's state funeral will begin tomorrow in his beloved California, with the late president then to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol over the weekend, a family representative said yesterday. 
Giving the first details of funeral arrangements for the 38th president, Gregory D. Willard said events will last until Wednesday, when Ford will be interred in a hillside tomb near his presidential museum in his home state of Michigan. 
Ceremonies begin tomorrow with a private prayer service for the family at St. Margaret's Church in Palm Desert, Calif., visitation by friends and a period of public repose. 
On Saturday, Ford's body will be flown to Washington in late afternoon, his hearse pausing at the World War II memorial in joint tribute to the wartime Navy reserve veteran and his comrades in uniform, Willard told a news conference in Palm Desert. 
The state funeral will be conducted in the Capitol Rotunda that evening and after that, the public will be able to file in to pay last respects. Ford was expected to lie in state until Tuesday morning. 
In a departure from tradition meant to highlight Ford's long service in Congress, his body will also lie in repose outside the main door of the House and, later, outside the main doors of the Senate chamber. 
"I know personally how much those two tributes themselves meant to President Ford," Willard said. 
The last major event in Washington will be Tuesday morning, with a funeral service at the National Cathedral. Ford's remains will leave shortly after noon for a service and interment near his Grand Rapids, Mich., museum. It will be only the nation's third state funeral in more than 30 years. 
The ceremonies form a tribute to a man who rose to the White House in the collapse of Richard Nixon's presidency, and who served the longest term in the House of any president. 
"The nation's appreciation for the contributions that President Ford made throughout his long and well-lived life are more than we could ever have anticipated," his wife, Betty, said in a statement thanking the multitudes who offered condolences after her husband died Tuesday at age 93. 
"These kindnesses have made this difficult time more bearable." 
Ford is to become the 11th president to lie in state in the Rotunda. 
One open question was how involved the funeral procession to the Capitol, often the most stirring of Washington's rituals of mourning, would be for a man whose modest ways and brief presidency set him apart from those honored with elaborate parades. 
Planners are guided by the wishes of the family and any instructions from the president himself on how elaborate the events will be, how much of it takes place in Washington and more. 
Ex-presidents routinely are involved in their funeral planning with the Military District of Washington, which turned to the task quietly but with increasing urgency as Ford went through several bouts of ill health in recent years. 
The nation has only witnessed two presidential state funerals in over three decades - those of Ronald Reagan in 2004 and Lyndon Johnson in 1973. 
Nixon's family, acting on his wishes, opted out of the Washington traditions when he died in 1994, his presidency shortened and forever tainted by the Watergate scandal. 
What happens in Washington, particularly, unfolds according to guidelines that go back to the mid-1800s and have been shaped over time. 
No longer are government buildings draped in black, as they were in the time of Abraham Lincoln and before. 
But if a chosen ceremony requires mourners to be seated, for example, seating arrangements are detailed with a precision dictated by tradition. The presidential party is followed by chiefs of state, arranged alphabetically by the English spelling of their countries. 
Royalty representing chiefs of state come next, and then heads of governments followed by other officials. 
Two presidents are buried at Arlington National Cemetery, Kennedy and William H. Taft. Reagan was buried on the hilltop grounds of his presidential library in Simi Valley, Calif., in a dramatic sunset ceremony capping a week of official public mourning.

On the Net:

Ford museum and library: http://www.ford.utexas.edu/

The Architect of the Capitol: http://www.aoc.gov/


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