In Memoriam: Gerald R. Ford

Well, first James Brown and now Gerald Ford. So much for a merry Christmas. Anyhow, as much as I respect Mr. Please Please Pleasae and his body of work which is amazing considering the man never learned to read music, President Ford is the long president to which my home state can claim. So, I hope no one minds if I throw one more eulogy on the pile.

Although Michigan counts Gerald Ford among their greatest sons, he wasn't actually born there. Or even as Gerald Ford, he was instead born in Nebraska and given the name Leslie King Jr. It was only after his mother divorced his abusive father and moved back in with her family in Grand Rapids, Michigan that she remarried and he was all but adopted by his step-father. To the extent of taking his name, Gerald Ford. Although the change didn't become official until 1935, a good twenty years later. Still, since Mr. Ford was only two years old at the time and he was born in raised in Grand Rapids (A very conservative leaning area of the state, by the way.) the people in my homeland have always considered him just as good as a native son. The point's debatable I suppose but, then, there haven't been any other presidents from anywhere near Michigan and so it's just one of those things that gets taught to schoolchildren around there, I suppose.

Growing up Mr. Ford became a Boy Scout eventually earning his Eagle Scout rank (Something no other president has done before or since.). I had a friend once who managed to do the same and, as I recall, it was a pretty lengthy and involved undertaking. Which, as it's something that only about 5% of all Boy Scouts go on to do, is a pretty notable accomplishment. He also went on to become a high school football star and eventually played for several championship teams at the University of Michigan during the 30s. He played as a center and, since UofM happens to be my alma mater as well, there are more than a few legends told about his time there. Including how he'd wash dishes in his fraternity house for beer money. Which, I think, says a lot about the man. As does the fact that he went on to turn down offers from the Lions and other NFL teams to pursue a law degree at Yale.

There, he was a staunch opponent of involving the US in the growing conflict we know now as World War II (There was something called the neutrality act which Mr. Ford advocated for.) and while that position might seem a bit mistaken in retrospect, it was far from an uncommon one in the early 40s, especially amongst conservatives. Even after he graduated and moved back to Grand Rapids to become a member of the Michigan bar. His plans and his opinions were changed, however, by Pearl Harbor. Afterwards, Mr. Ford, like so many others, went on to join the navy. He was a sports coach at Annapolis and then served overseas. Although is ship wasn't incapacitated in combat it was wrecked by one of the Pacific's many storms. In fact, Mr. Ford was very nearly tossed overboard as the deck pitched and rolled in the typhoon.

Like becoming vice president and even president, he was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and so he survived. But, well, after the war, he came back to Grand Rapids. There, he came to marry his wife, Betty, and was elected to Congress as a Republican. Both in 1948. He campaigned with a promise to farmers that, if elected, he'd come to their farms and milk their cows – a promise he kept. He went on to serve for nearly 25 years eventually becoming minority leader in a Democratically controlled House where he was a vocal opponent of President Johnson's “Great Society” and the handling of the Vietnam War. He even sat on the Warren Commission following the assassination of President Kennedy.

And so it was that the people of Grand Rapids were the last ones to elect Ford to any office because when Mr. Nixon's then vice-president and hatchet man Spiro Agnew resigned after he was indicted for tax evasion Gerald Ford was the natural choice to replace him. And, after being appointed mid-term when Nixon resigned in the face of his own impending trial, Mr. Ford succeeded him to the highest office in the land.

There, I like to think, he served as well as he could. Personally, I don't find much in his politics to agree with but I find it hard to speak ill of the dead. And he was the president who oversaw the end of the Vietnam War and several key treaties with the Soviet Union. But Watergate is forever going to shadow his presidency.

Still, I've always had a fascination with Mr. Ford. He was a humble man, a simple man, and, above all, a Michigan man. And, well, I'd heard about him all throughout school and there are definitely worse rolemodels. Mr. Ford was someone who came from an abusive household, a child of divorce and a mixed family when such things were even rarer than they are today, and, of course, the mild poverty that all but the elite few endure. Through hard work and dedication he pulled himself up and made something not just of himself but the whole word. I never had the pleasure to meet the man personally, but I have heard him speak and might even have shook his hand once at one event or another. He has a museum in Grand Rapids (Which is a really nice place to visit) but he also has a library on the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan. Well within walking distance for, say, a student at that fine institute with an interest in the past. One of my friends used to work there and I certainly spent some time looking over the memorabilia and history on display. It was fun and interesting. I imagine that place is more than a little sad today but that library's going to be there for years and years to come. And, at the moment, I can't think of a more fitting tribute.