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Gerald Ford

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (/ˈɛrəld/ JERR-əld;[1] born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He previously served as the leader of the Republican Party in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1965 to 1973, and as the 40th vice president under President Richard Nixon from 1973 to 1974. Ford succeeded to the presidency when Nixon resigned in 1974, but was defeated for election to a full term in 1976. Ford is the only person to serve as president and vice president without being elected to either office.

This article is about the president of the United States. For other uses, see Gerald Ford (disambiguation).

Gerald Ford

Richard Nixon

Nelson Rockefeller

Charles A. Halleck

John Jacob Rhodes

Charles A. Halleck

Leslie Lynch King Jr.

(1913-07-14)July 14, 1913
Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.

December 26, 2006(2006-12-26) (aged 93)
Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.

(m. 1948)

  • Politician
  • lawyer

Cursive signaure in ink

United States

1942–1946

1935

Economics

Grand Rapids South High School

Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, where he played for the school's football team before eventually attending Yale Law School. Afterward, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. Ford began his political career in 1949 as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district, serving in this capacity for nearly 25 years, the final nine of them as the House minority leader. In December 1973, two months after Spiro Agnew's resignation, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment. After the subsequent resignation of President Nixon in August 1974, Ford immediately assumed the presidency.


Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession.[2] In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. Foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the president.[3] Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, which marked a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the collapse of South Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War essentially ended. In the 1976 Republican presidential primary, Ford defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost the presidential election to the Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter.


Following his years as president, Ford remained active in the Republican Party, but his moderate views on various social issues increasingly put him at odds with conservative members of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. He also set aside the enmity he had felt towards Carter following the 1976 election and the two former presidents developed a close friendship. After experiencing a series of health problems, he died in Rancho Mirage, California in 2006. Surveys of historians and political scientists have ranked Ford as a below-average president,[4][5][6] though retrospective public polls on his time in office were more positive.[7][8]

Personal life

Family

When speaking of his mother and stepfather, Ford said that "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother equally wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."[16]


Ford had three half-siblings from the second marriage of Leslie King Sr., his biological father: Marjorie King (1921–1993), Leslie Henry King (1923–1976), and Patricia Jane King (1925–1980). They never saw one another as children, and he did not know them at all until 1960. Ford was not aware of his biological father until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth. That year his biological father, whom Ford described as a "carefree, well-to-do man who didn't really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King Sr.'s death in 1941.[10][213]

 

Ford received the in May 1970, as well as the Silver Buffalo Award, from the Boy Scouts of America.

Distinguished Eagle Scout Award

In 1974, he also received the highest distinction of the , the Golden Pheasant Award.[228] In 1985, he received the 1985 Old Tom Morris Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, GCSAA's highest honor.[229] In 1992, the U.S. Navy Memorial Foundation awarded Ford its Lone Sailor Award for his naval service and his subsequent government service. In 1999, Ford was honored with a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars.[230] Also in 1999, Ford was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton.[231] In 2001, he was presented with the John F. Kennedy Profiles in Courage Award for his decision to pardon Richard Nixon to stop the agony America was experiencing over Watergate.[232]

Scout Association of Japan

List of Freemasons

List of members of the American Legion

List of presidents of the United States

List of presidents of the United States by previous experience

Presidents of the United States on U.S. postage stamps