That year his biological father, whom Ford described as a 'carefree, well-to-do man who didn't really give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son', approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing.' Ford attended the University of Michigan, where he joined the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity (Omicron chapter). He washed dishes at his fraternity house to earn money for college expenses. His introduction into politics was in the summer of 1940 when he worked for the Republican presidential campaign of Wendell Willkie (who was an interventionist vice an isolationist).Ford graduated from law school in 1941 and was admitted to the Michigan bar shortly thereafter. In May 1941, he opened a Grand Rapids law practice with a friend, Philip W. Buchen, who would later serve as Ford's White House counsel.