Gerald Ford

38th President of the United States

### Children

Michael Ford (son), Jack Ford (son), Steven Ford (son), Susan Ford Bales (daughter)

### Parents

Leslie Lynch King Sr. (father)Dorothy Ayer Gardner Ford (mother)

### Siblings

Marjorie B. King (half-sister), Leslie Henry King (half-brother), Patricia Jane King (half-sister), Thomas Gardner Ford (half-brother), Richard Addison Ford (half-brother), James Francis Ford (half-brother)

### Education

University of Michigan (BA)Yale University (LLB)

### Hair Color

Blonde

When **Gerald R. Ford** took the oath of office on August 9, 1974 as our 38th President after Nixon's resignation, he declared, “I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances…This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”

*The Presidency of Gerald Ford spanned the period in United States history that encompasses the events of the Cold War Era and the age of the Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race. President Gerald Ford represented the Republican political party which influenced the domestic and foreign policies of his presidency.*

## Biography

When Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, he declared, “I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances…. This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”

It was indeed an unprecedented time. He had been the first Vice President chosen under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and, in the aftermath of the Watergate scandal, was succeeding the first President ever to resign.

Ford was confronted with almost insuperable tasks. There were the challenges of mastering inflation, reviving a depressed economy, solving chronic energy shortages, and trying to ensure world peace.

The President acted to curb the trend toward Government intervention and spending as a means of solving the problems of American society and the economy. In the long run, he believed, this shift would bring a better life for all Americans.

Ford’s reputation for integrity and openness had made him popular during his 25 years in Congress. From 1965 to 1973, he was House Minority Leader. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1913, he grew up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He starred on the University of Michigan football team, then went to Yale, where he served as assistant coach while earning his law degree. During World War II he attained the rank of lieutenant commander in the Navy. After the war he returned to Grand Rapids, where he began the practice of law, and entered Republican politics. A few weeks before his election to Congress in 1948, he married Elizabeth Bloomer. They have four children: Michael, John, Steven, and Susan.

As President, Ford tried to calm earlier controversies by granting former President Nixon a full pardon. His nominee for Vice President, former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was the second person to fill that office by appointment. Gradually, Ford selected a cabinet of his own.

Ford established his policies during his first year in office, despite opposition from a heavily Democratic Congress. His first goal was to curb inflation. Then, when recession became the Nation’s most serious domestic problem, he shifted to measures aimed at stimulating the economy. But, still fearing inflation, Ford vetoed a number of non-military appropriations bills that would have further increased the already heavy budgetary deficit. During his first 14 months as President he vetoed 39 measures. His vetoes were usually sustained.

Ford continued as he had in his Congressional days to view himself as “a moderate in domestic affairs, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs.” A major goal was to help business operate more freely by reducing taxes upon it and easing the controls exercised by regulatory agencies. “We…declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers,” he said.

In foreign affairs Ford acted vigorously to maintain U. S. power and prestige after the collapse of Cambodia and South Viet Nam. Preventing a new war in the Middle East remained a major objective; by providing aid to both Israel and Egypt, the Ford Administration helped persuade the two countries to accept an interim truce agreement. Detente with the Soviet Union continued. President Ford and Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev set new limitations upon nuclear weapons.

President Ford won the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1976, but lost the election to his Democratic opponent, former Governor Jimmy Carter of Georgia.

On Inauguration Day, President Carter began his speech: “For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land.” A grateful people concurred.

Ford died on December 26, 2006.

## Personality

The character traits of President Gerald Ford can be described as genial, honest, direct, considerate and diligent. It has been speculated that the Myers-Briggs personality type for Gerald Ford is an INTP (introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving). A modest, reserved, stoic character with a preference to work informally with others as equals. Gerald Ford Personality type: Quiet, analytical, impatient and thoughtful.

## Nicknames

* "Jerry"
* "The Accidental President"
* "Mr. Nice Guy"

*Meaning: The nickname of President Gerald Ford provides an insight into how the man was viewed by the American public during his presidency. The meaning of the nickname "Mr. Nice Guy" refers to his likable , pleasant, clean-cut image and his aversion to causing trouble or dissent.*

## Inauguration

The inauguration of Gerald Ford as the 38th president of the United States was held on Friday, August 9, 1974, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., after President Richard Nixon resigned due to the Watergate scandal. The inauguration – the last non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration to take place in the 20th century – marked the commencement of Gerald Ford's only term (a partial term of 2 years, 164 days) as president. Chief Justice Warren E. Burger administered the oath of office. The Bible upon which Ford recited the oath was held by his wife, Betty Ford, open to Proverbs 3:5–6. Ford was the ninth vice president to succeed to the presidency intra-term, and he remains the most recent to do so, as of 2023.

Although this was the ninth, and most recent non-scheduled, extraordinary inauguration to take place since the presidency was established in 1789, it was the first to take place due to the president's resignation; the previous eight had been occasioned by the president's death in office. Ford had become vice president only eight months earlier, after Spiro Agnew resigned due to bribery allegations while serving as Baltimore County Executive and Governor of Maryland. He was the first vice president appointed as such under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment. Thus, when he succeeded Nixon, Ford became the first (and remains the only) person to have held both the office of vice president and president without having been elected to either office.

## Famous Films

* The Godfather Part II
* **Jaws (1976)**
* Taxi Driver (1975)
* Rocky (1976)
* One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
* Carrie (1976)
* The Conversation
* Shampoo (1975)
* Texas Chainsaw Massacre
* The Rocky Horror Picture Show

## Accomplishments and major events

*The first action taken by Gerald Ford was to grant Richard Nixon an unconditional pardon. It was a highly unpopular decision and lost Ford the support of many Americans. He also had to deal with 'Stagflation', a combination of rising prices, inflation and economic stagnation. The other main events that occurred during the time that Gerald Ford was president included the 1974 Campaign Reform Law and the Privacy Act of 1974. His presidency witnessed the rise of the Khmer Rouge regime (1975-1979) of Pol Pot in Cambodia. The 1975 Helsinki Accords that dealt with the issues of cooperation, security and human rights.*

**The Cold War (1945 - 1991)**

Summary: The Cold War (1945 - 1991) was a 'war of words'  involving the Cold War Space Race and the Cold War Arms Race involving the nuclear build-up between the USA and the West and the Communist countries dominated by the USSR and China in the East. Gerald Ford was one of the nine US Presidents who were in office during the dangerous period in history known as the Cold War in which the US adopted the policy of Containment to restrict the spread of communism abroad..

**Stagflation (1970's)**

Summary: Stagflation was the term used to describe the state of the nation's economy during the 1970's. Stagflation was a combination of economic stagnation, rising prices and inflation. President Richard Nixon failed to curb stagflation and President Ford faced the worst recession since the Great Depression. His economic policies failed to work and stagflation continued into the presidency of Jimmy Carter. The economy finally began to recover during the administration of Ronald Reagan.

**The Privacy Act of 1974**

Summary: The Privacy Act of 1974 provided safeguards against the invasion of personal privacy through the misuse of data

**The Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) and the SS Mayaguez Incident (1975)**

Summary: The Khmer Rouge (1975-1979) and the merciless regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia hit the headlines during the SS Mayaguez Incident when an American cargo ship called the SS Mayaguez was seized by the Khmer Rouge. The “Mayaguez Incident”, aka the Battle on Koh Tang (May 12–15, 1975),  is officially referred to as the last battle of the Vietnam War.

**Jaws (1975)**

Summary: Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg, based on the 1974 novel by Peter Benchley. It stars Roy Scheider as police chief Martin Brody, who, with the help of a marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss) and a professional shark hunter (Robert Shaw), hunts a man-eating great white shark that attacks beachgoers at a summer resort town.

Regarded as a watershed moment in motion picture history, *Jaws* was the prototypical summer blockbuster, and won several awards for its music and editing. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until the release of *Star Wars* two years later; both films were pivotal in establishing the modern Hollywood business model, which pursues high box-office returns from action and adventure films with simple high-concept premises, released during the summer in thousands of theaters and advertised heavily. *Jaws* was followed by three sequels (none of which involved Spielberg or Benchley) and many imitative thrillers, and in 2001, the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

**The Helsinki Accords (1975)**

Summary: The Helsinki Accords were a series of agreements that were signed in August 1975 by leaders of the USA, the USSR and 35 nations who were members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Helsinki Accords dealt with three main issues of cooperation, security and human rights but the agreements were subsequently broken by the Soviets.

## Post Presidency

The Nixon pardon controversy eventually subsided. Ford's successor, Jimmy Carter, opened his 1977 inaugural address by praising the outgoing president, saying, "For myself and for our Nation, I want to thank my predecessor for all he has done to heal our land." After leaving the White House, the Fords moved to Denver, Colorado. Ford successfully invested in oil with Marvin Davis, which later provided an income for Ford's children.

He continued to make appearances at events of historical and ceremonial significance to the nation, such as presidential inaugurals and memorial services. In January 1977, he became the president of Eisenhower Fellowships in Philadelphia, then served as the chairman of its board of trustees from 1980 to 1986. Later in 1977, he reluctantly agreed to be interviewed by James M. Naughton, a *New York Times* journalist who was given the assignment to write the former president's advance obituary, an article that would be updated prior to its eventual publication. In 1979, Ford published his autobiography, *A Time to Heal* (Harper/Reader's Digest, 454 pages). A review in *Foreign Affairs* described it as, "Serene, unruffled, unpretentious, like the author. This is the shortest and most honest of recent presidential memoirs, but there are no surprises, no deep probings of motives or events. No more here than meets the eye." During the term of office of his successor, Jimmy Carter, Ford received monthly briefs by President Carter's senior staff on international and domestic issues, and was always invited to lunch at the White House whenever he was in Washington, D.C. Their close friendship developed after Carter had left office, with the catalyst being their trip together to the funeral of Anwar el-Sadat in 1981. Until Ford's death, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, visited the Fords' home frequently. Ford and Carter served as honorary co-chairs of the National Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2001 and of the Continuity of Government Commission in 2002.

Like Presidents Carter, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, Ford was an honorary co-chair of the Council for Excellence in Government, a group dedicated to excellence in government performance, which provides leadership training to top federal employees. He also devoted much time to his love of golf, often playing both privately and in public events with comedian Bob Hope, a longtime friend. In 1977, he shot a hole in one during a Pro-am held in conjunction with the Danny Thomas Memphis Classic at Colonial Country Club in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1977, Ford established the Gerald R. Ford Institute of Public Policy at Albion College in Albion, Michigan, to give undergraduates training in public policy. In April 1981, he opened the Gerald R. Ford Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on the north campus of his alma mater, the University of Michigan, followed in September by the Gerald R. Ford Museum in Grand Rapids. Ford considered a run for the Republican nomination in 1980, forgoing numerous opportunities to serve on corporate boards to keep his options open for a rematch with Carter. Ford attacked Carter's conduct of the SALT II negotiations and foreign policy in the Middle East and Africa. Many have argued that Ford also wanted to exorcise his image as an "Accidental President" and to win a term in his own right. Ford also believed the more conservative Ronald Reagan would be unable to defeat Carter and would hand the incumbent a second term. Ford was encouraged by his former Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, as well as Jim Rhodes of Ohio and Bill Clements of Texas to make the race. On March 15, 1980, Ford announced that he would forgo a run for the Republican nomination, vowing to support the eventual nominee.

After securing the Republican nomination in 1980, Ronald Reagan considered his former rival Ford as a potential vice-presidential running mate, but negotiations between the Reagan and Ford camps at the Republican National Convention were unsuccessful. Ford conditioned his acceptance on Reagan's agreement to an unprecedented "co-presidency", giving Ford the power to control key executive branch appointments (such as Kissinger as Secretary of State and Alan Greenspan as Treasury Secretary). After rejecting these terms, Reagan offered the vice-presidential nomination instead to George H. W. Bush. Ford did appear in a campaign commercial for the Reagan-Bush ticket, in which he declared that the country would be "better served by a Reagan presidency rather than a continuation of the weak and politically expedient policies of Jimmy Carter". On October 8, 1980, Ford said former President Nixon's involvement in the general election potentially could negatively impact the Reagan campaign: "I think it would have been much more helpful if Mr. Nixon had stayed in the background during this campaign. It would have been much more beneficial to Ronald Reagan."

On October 3, 1980, Ford cast blame on Carter for the latter's charges of ineffectiveness on the part of the Federal Reserve Board due to his appointing of most of its members: "President Carter, when the going gets tough, will do anything to save his own political skin. This latest action by the president is cowardly."

Following the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan, Ford told reporters while appearing at a fundraiser for Thomas Kean that criminals who use firearms should get the death penalty in the event someone is injured with the weapon. In September 1981, Ford advised Reagan against succumbing to Wall Street demands and follow his own agenda for the economic policies of the US during an appearance on *Good Morning America*: "He shouldn't let the gurus of Wall Street decide what the economic future of this country is going to be. They are wrong in my opinion." On October 20, 1981, Ford stated stopping the Reagan administration's Saudi arms package could have a large negative impact to American relations in the Middle East during a news conference.

On March 24, 1982, Ford offered an endorsement of President Reagan's economic policies while also stating the possibility of Reagan being met with a stalemate by Congress if not willing to compromise while in Washington. Ford founded the annual AEI World Forum in 1982, and joined the American Enterprise Institute as a distinguished fellow. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate at Central Connecticut State University on March 23, 1988.

During an August 1982 fundraising reception, Ford stated his opposition to a constitutional amendment requiring the US to have a balanced budget, citing a need to elect "members of the House and Senate who will immediately when Congress convenes act more responsibly in fiscal matters." Ford was a participant in the 1982 midterm elections, traveling to Tennessee in October of that year to help Republican candidates. In January 1984, a letter signed by Ford and Carter and urging world leaders to extend their failed effort to end world hunger was released and sent to Secretary-General of the United Nations Javier Pérez de Cuéllar. In 1987, Ford testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee in favor of District of Columbia Circuit Court judge and former Solicitor General Robert Bork after Bork was nominated by President Reagan to be an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Bork's nomination was rejected by a vote of 58–42.

In 1987, Ford's *Humor and the Presidency*, a book of humorous political anecdotes, was published. By 1988, Ford was a member of several corporate boards including Commercial Credit, Nova Pharmaceutical, The Pullman Company, Tesoro Petroleum, and Tiger International, Inc. Ford also became an honorary director of Citigroup, a position he held until his death.In October 1990, Ford appeared in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with Bob Hope to commemorate the centennial anniversary of the birth of former President Dwight D. Eisenhower, where the two unveiled a plaque with the signatures of each living former president. In April 1991, Ford joined former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Jimmy Carter, in supporting the Brady Bill. Three years later, he wrote to the U.S. House of Representatives, along with Carter and Reagan, in support of the assault weapons ban.

At the 1992 Republican National Convention, Ford compared the election cycle to his 1976 loss to Carter and urged attention be paid to electing a Republican Congress: "If it's change you want on Nov. 3, my friends, the place to start is not at the White House but in the United States' Capitol. Congress, as every school child knows, has the power of the purse. For nearly 40 years, Democratic majorities have held to the time-tested New Deal formula, tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect." (The Republicans would later win both Houses of Congress at the 1994 mid-term elections.) In April 1997, Ford joined President Bill Clinton, former President Bush, and Nancy Reagan in signing the "Summit Declaration of Commitment" in advocating for participation by private citizens in solving domestic issues within the United States.

On January 20, 1998, during an interview at his Palm Springs home, Ford said the Republican Party's nominee in the 2000 presidential election would lose if the party turned ultra-conservative in their ideals: "If we get way over on the hard right of the political spectrum, we will not elect a Republican President. I worry about the party going down this ultra-conservative line. We ought to learn from the Democrats: when they were running ultra-liberal candidates, they didn't win." In the prelude to the impeachment of President Clinton, Ford conferred with former President Carter and the two agreed to not speak publicly on the controversy, a pact broken by Carter when answering a question from a student at Emory University. In October 2001, Ford broke with conservative members of the Republican Party by stating that gay and lesbian couples "ought to be treated equally. Period." He became the highest-ranking Republican to embrace full equality for gays and lesbians, stating his belief that there should be a federal amendment outlawing anti-gay job discrimination and expressing his hope that the Republican Party would reach out to gay and lesbian voters. He also was a member of the Republican Unity Coalition, which *The New York Times* described as "a group of prominent Republicans, including former President Gerald R. Ford, dedicated to making sexual orientation a non-issue in the Republican Party".

On November 22, 2004, New York Republican Governor George Pataki named Ford and the other living former Presidents (Carter, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton) as honorary members of the board rebuilding the World Trade Center. In a pre-recorded embargoed interview with Bob Woodward of *The Washington Post* in July 2004, Ford stated that he disagreed "very strongly" with the Bush administration's choice of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction as justification for its decision to invade Iraq, calling it a "big mistake" unrelated to the national security of the United States and indicating that he would not have gone to war had he been president. The details of the interview were not released until after Ford's death, as he requested.

### Health problems

On April 4, 1990, Ford was admitted to Eisenhower Medical Center for surgery to replace his left knee, orthopedic surgeon Robert Murphy saying, "Ford's entire left knee was replaced with an artificial joint, including portions of the adjacent femur, or thigh bone, and tibia, or leg bone."

Ford suffered two minor strokes at the 2000 Republican National Convention, but made a quick recovery after being admitted to Hahnemann University Hospital. In January 2006, he spent 11 days at the Eisenhower Medical Center near his residence at Rancho Mirage, California, for treatment of pneumonia. On April 23, 2006, President George W. Bush visited Ford at his home in Rancho Mirage for a little over an hour. This was Ford's last public appearance and produced the last known public photos, video footage, and voice recording.

While vacationing in Vail, Colorado, Ford was hospitalized for two days in July 2006 for shortness of breath. On August 15 he was admitted to St. Mary's Hospital of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, for testing and evaluation. On August 21, it was reported that he had been fitted with a pacemaker. On August 25, he underwent an angioplasty procedure at the Mayo Clinic. On August 28, Ford was released from the hospital and returned with his wife Betty to their California home. On October 13, he was scheduled to attend the dedication of a building of his namesake, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy at the University of Michigan, but due to poor health and on the advice of his doctors he did not attend. The previous day, Ford had entered the Eisenhower Medical Center for undisclosed tests; he was released on October 16. By November 2006, he was confined to a bed in his study.

## Death

Ford died on December 26, 2006, at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, of arteriosclerotic cerebrovascular disease and diffuse arteriosclerosis. He had end-stage coronary artery disease and severe aortic stenosis and insufficiency, caused by calcific alteration of one of his heart valves. At the time of his death, Ford was the longest-lived U.S. president, having lived 93 years and 165 days (45 days longer than Ronald Reagan, whose record he surpassed). He died on the 34th anniversary of President Harry S. Truman's death; he was the last surviving member of the Warren Commission.

On December 30, 2006, Ford became the 11th U.S. president to lie in state in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. A state funeral and memorial services were held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, January 2, 2007. After the service, Ford was interred at his Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Scouting was so important to Ford that his family asked for Scouts to participate in his funeral. A few selected Scouts served as ushers inside the National Cathedral. About 400 Eagle Scouts were part of the funeral procession, where they formed an honor guard as the casket went by in front of the museum. Ford selected the song to be played during his funeral procession at the U.S. Capitol. After his death in December 2006, the University of Michigan Marching Band played the school's fight song for him one final time, for his last ride from the Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The State of Michigan commissioned and submitted a statue of Ford to the National Statuary Hall Collection, replacing Zachariah Chandler. It was unveiled on May 3, 2011, in the Capitol Rotunda.

## Facts and trivia

* Gerald R. Ford is the only president in American history never to be elected Vice President or President.
* Ford's biological father, Leslie Lynch King Jr. was the son of prominent banker Charles Henry King and Martha Alicia King (née Porter).
* Ford's mother, Dorothy, separated from King just sixteen days after her son's birth. After living with her parents for two and a half years, on February 1, 1917, Dorothy married Gerald Rudolph Ford, a salesman in a family-owned paint and varnish company. Though never formally adopted, her young son was referred to as Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. from then on; the name change was formalized on December 3, 1935.
* Ford later said that his biological father had a history of hitting his mother. In a biography of Ford, James M. Cannon wrote that the separation and divorce of Ford's parents was sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, infant son, and Ford's nursemaid. Ford later told confidants that his father had first hit his mother when she had smiled at another man during their honeymoon.
* Ford was raised in Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers from his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner "Tom" Ford (1918–1995), Richard Addison "Dick" Ford (1924–2015), and James Francis "Jim" Ford (1927–2001).
* As a boy, Ford joined the Boy Scouts of America, where he earned the highest rank of Eagle Scout. He is the only Eagle Scout to have ascended to the U.S. presidency.
* Ford attended the University of Michigan, where he was a member of the school's football team, winning two National Championships. Following his senior year, he turned down offers from the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, instead opting to go to Yale Law School.
* After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve, serving from 1942 to 1946; he left as a lieutenant commander.
* On October 15, 1948, Ford married Elizabeth Bloomer (1918–2011) at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids; it was his first and only marriage and her second marriage. She had previously been married and, after a five‐year marriage, divorced from William Warren. The couple had four children: Michael Gerald, born in 1950, John Gardner (known as Jack) born in 1952, Steven Meigs, born in 1956, and Susan Elizabeth, born in 1957.
* Ford began his political career in 1949 as the U.S. representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district. He served in this capacity for nearly 25 years, the final nine of them as the House minority leader.
* In December 1973, two months after the resignation of Spiro Agnew, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment. After the subsequent resignation of President Nixon in August 1974, Ford immediately assumed the presidency. To date, this was the last intra-term U.S. presidential succession.
* While in office, Ford established special education in schools.
* As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, which marked a move toward détente in the Cold War.
* With the collapse of South Vietnam nine months into his presidency, US involvement in the Vietnam War essentially ended.
* Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure.
* In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal.
* During his presidency, he faced two assassination attempts; neither time was Ford injured.
* In the 1976 Republican presidential primary campaign, Ford defeated former California Governor Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost the presidential election to the Democratic challenger, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.
* After leaving the White House, the Fords moved to Denver, Colorado. Ford successfully invested in oil with Marvin Davis, which later provided an income for Ford's children. They later purchased a home in Rancho Mirage, California, near Palm Springs.
* Following his years as president, Ford remained active in the Republican Party. His moderate views on various social issues increasingly put him at odds with conservative members of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s.
* In retirement, Ford set aside the enmity he had felt towards Carter following the 1976 election, and the two former presidents developed a close friendship.
* Ford died the day after Christmas, on December 26, 2006, at the age of 93.
* Surveys of historians and political scientists have ranked Ford as a below-average president.

## References

* https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/King-1042