I was sad to hear this morning that Gerald Ford died yesterday.  It turns out that he was the longest living former president - outliving Ronald Reagan by a month. 

Soon after becoming president he said:

“I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots. So I ask you to confirm me with your prayers.”

Being forthright and open seems to run in his family.  In reading about Ford’s death, I came across this information that I don’t recall hearing before, although I’m sure it was in the news when he was President.

He was born Leslie King on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Neb. His parents were divorced when he was less than a year old, and his mother returned to her parents in Grand Rapids, where she later married Gerald R. Ford Sr. He adopted the boy and renamed him.

Ford was a high school senior when he met his biological father. He was working in a Greek restaurant, he recalled, when a man came in and stood watching.

“Finally, he walked over and said, ‘I’m your father,’” Ford said. “Well, that was quite a shock.” But he wrote in his memoir that he broke down and cried that night and he was left with the image of “a carefree, well-to-do man who didn’t really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son.”

I believe Gerald Ford will be remembered primarily for three things:

(1) Pardoning Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandals

(2) Being the only president who was never elected to the vice presidency or presidency

(3) Being married to Betty Ford

And that’s not a bad legacy. 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 at 9:43 am and is filed under Headlines/Current Events, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.