There were many things about former President Gerald Ford, who died Tuesday night at the age of 93, that set him apart from any other man who served in the Oval Office. He was the only man to serve who was never elected president or vice president, having been thrust into the presidency on Aug. 9, 1974 after Richard Nixon’s resignation. He was the longest living former president in history. And, as a three-time letter winner on the University of Michigan football team and an NFL prospect, he is unquestionably – with all due apologies to former Yale first baseman George H.W. Bush – the finest athlete to serve as commander in chief. At Fairfield, he is best known by some as the president who infamously thanked those in attendance in an appearance in the Oak Room in the early 1980s for inviting him to ‘Fairdale University.’ But those who studied Ford’s presidency say he was a man who brought great calamity to a nation in a crisis, and as a gentleman widely respected and admired by people of both political parties and all ideologies. ‘Over the next month, people will be talking about how well he did his job; how he showed that the presidency could work,’ said Fairfield politics professor John Orman. ‘Ford said ‘we can do this’ and he continued the presidency.’ Born as Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Neb., the 38th president of the United States became Gerald Ford Jr. when his mother, Dorothy Ayer, married Gerald Ford Sr. and took her son from Nebraska to Grand Rapids, Mich. From that point forward, he was a Michigan man. As the starting center, he anchored the Wolverines offensive line for back-to-back undefeated seasons in 1932 and 1933, and could have played for the Detroit Lions or Green Bay Packers if he hadn’t turned down their contract offers to attend law school at Yale. After serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II, Ford returned to Grand Rapids and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1949. In 1963 was voted House minority leader, a post that effectively launched him into the vice presidency in 1973 when, after the resignation of Vice President Spiro Agnew, he was appointed vice president by President Nixon. On Aug. 9, 1974, Ford was hastily sworn into the presidency a day after Nixon resigned amidst an on-going impeachment trial over his role in the Watergate scandal. He served just 898 days in the Oval Office, during which, in September of 1975, he survived two assassination attempts within three weeks of one another, and set up the Rockefeller commission, which launched investigations into wrongdoings by the CIA and FBI in the 1940s and 50s. Ford’s presidency ended after he lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter – a man he considered a good friend in his post-presidential years. He was stricken by health problems for most of his final years, and was in and out of the hospital earlier this year with various ailments. His wife, Betty, issued a statement Tuesday night that he had died, but did not say when or where he died, or announce the cause of death. Orman said in a way, the ‘Fairdale’ gaffe fit perfectly into Ford’s image as the clumsy, inarticulate man portrayed by Chevy Chase in Saturday Night Live skits, but that he was much smarter than people gave him credit for. ‘I remember Ford saying ‘I want to thank everyone at Fairdale, and I said, ‘You’ve got to be Jerry,” he said. ‘But in my opinion, Ford really had a bum rap. He was a smart guy. He used to be able to give a briefing on the federal budget and tell how much money was in each department without any notes.’ Above all, though, Orman said, Ford will be remembered as a man who was ‘open, honest, and decent.’
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