President Gerald Ford

President Gerald Ford

By Tom Kirvan

His resume was highlighted by a range of line items: star football player, model, lawyer, congressman, Warren Commission member, vice president, and president.

And yet, his most memorable line – in terms of a quote – was uttered after he was sworn in as vice president of the United States on December 6, 1973:

“I am a Ford, not a Lincoln,” Gerald Ford said upon succeeding the disgraced Spiro Agnew as vice president.

The remark was viewed as a refreshing, humble statement of normalcy in the wake of the Watergate scandal, which less than a year later would elevate Ford to the nation’s highest office following the forced resignation of President Richard Nixon.

President Gerald Ford*

Born on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Neb., the future president’s birth name was Leslie Lynch King Jr. After his biological father left the family when Ford was three years old, his mother’s second husband, Gerald Ford, adopted the young boy and gave him his new name.

Ford grew up in Grand Rapids, Mich. and was a standout football player at University of Michigan, where he was voted the most valuable player his senior year. He then worked as an assistant coach for Yale University’s football team while pursuing his law degree from the Ivy League school. He joined the Navy in 1942, earning 10 battle stars while serving aboard the USS Monterey, a light aircraft carrier.

His three years of military service reportedly inspired Ford to seek public office, as he defeated a Republican incumbent in the 1948 primary election for Congress, representing Michigan’s Fifth District. Ford would go on to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1949-73, winning 13 election races.

In his inaugural address in 1974, Ford declared: “Our long national nightmare is over. Our Constitution works; our great Republic is a government of laws and not of men.”

But the shadow of Watergate would haunt his 896-day presidency, most notably when he granted a full and absolute pardon to Richard Nixon in September 1974. The unpopular decision, according to historians, likely cost Ford the 1976 presidential election, when he was defeated by Jimmy Carter.

“Political courage can be self-defeating,” Ford said years later in reflecting upon his decision to pardon Nixon. “But the greatest defeat of all would be to live without courage, for that would hardly be living at all.”

Ford, who survived two assassination attempts while serving as president, died on December 26, 2006, at the age of 93. Approximately five years later in 2011, his beloved wife, Betty, also died at the age of 93.

*Editorial credit: mark reinstein / Shutterstock.com