Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
	Official portrait, 1974
38th President of the United States
	In office; August 9, 1974 – January 20, 1977
Vice President	Vacant (Aug–Dec 1974); Nelson Rockefeller (1974–1977);
Preceded by	Richard Nixon
Succeeded by	Jimmy Carter
40th Vice President of the United States
	In office; December 6, 1973 – August 9, 1974
President	Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Spiro Agnew
Succeeded by	Nelson Rockefeller
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives; from Michigan's 5th district
	In office; January 3, 1949 – December 6, 1973
Preceded by	Bartel J. Jonkman
Succeeded by	Richard Vander Veen
Whip
House positions
House Minority Leader
	In office; January 3, 1965 – December 6, 1973
Whip	Leslie C. Arends
Preceded by	Charles A. Halleck
Succeeded by	John Jacob Rhodes
Leader of the House Republican Conference
	In office; January 3, 1965 – December 6, 1973
Preceded by	Charles A. Halleck
Succeeded by	John Jacob Rhodes
Chair of the House Republican Conference
	In office; January 3, 1963 – January 3, 1965
Leader	Charles A. Halleck
Preceded by	Charles B. Hoeven
Succeeded by	Melvin Laird
Personal details
Born	Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913; Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.
Died	December 26, 2006 (aged 93); Rancho Mirage, California, U.S.
Resting place	Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
Party	Republican
Spouse	Betty Bloomer (m. 1948)
Children	4, including Steven and Susan
Parents	Leslie Lynch King Sr.; Dorothy Ayer Gardner Ford;
Education	University of Michigan (BA); Yale University (LLB);
Signature
Military service
Branch/service	United States Navy
Years of service	1942–1946
Rank	Lieutenant Commander
Battles/wars	World War II Battle of the Philippine Sea; ;
Awards	American Campaign Medal; Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal (with 9 campaign stars); Philippine Liberation Ribbon (with 2 campaign stars); World War II Victory Medal;
	Football career
No. 48
Position	Center
Career information
High school	Grand Rapids South High School
College	Michigan (1932–1934)
Awards and highlights
	2× National champion (1932, 1933); Meyer Morton Award (1932); Michigan Wolverines No. 48 retired;
Other information

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.

Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Michigan, where he also played for the university football team and with whom he won two national championships, before eventually graduating from Yale Law School with a Bachelor of Laws. Afterward, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. Ford was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948 from Michigan's 5th congressional district, and served in this capacity for nearly twenty-five years, the final eight of them as the House minority leader. During his career in the House, he was also part of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In December 1973, two months after the resignation of vice president Agnew, Ford was appointed to the vice presidency, becoming the first person appointed to become vice president under the terms of the twenty-fifth amendment. After the 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. His presidency was also overshadowed by the Watergate Scandal. 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. Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, which marked a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the collapse of South Vietnam eight months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War essentially ended. In the 1976 Republican presidential primary, he narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost the general election to the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter. Ford remains the only person to serve as president without winning a presidential election for president or vice president.

After leaving office in 1977, 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 presidential election and the two former presidents developed a close friendship. After experiencing a series of health problems, he died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, in 2006. Surveys of historians and political scientists have ranked Ford as a below-average president, though retrospective public polls on his time in office were more positive.