FORD, GERALD RUDOLPH
Without winning a single vote in a presidential election, Gerald Rudolph Ford became chief
executive of the United States on August 9, 1974.
Ford’s ascent to the White House began on Octo-
ber 12, 1973, when he was appointed by Presi-
dent RICHARD M. NIXON to succeed Vice
President Spiro T. Agnew. Agnew left office on
October 10, 1973, after PLEADING nolo con-
tendere (I will not contest it) to felonious TAX
EVASION. Ford was a popular Republican con-
gressman from Grand Rapids,Michigan, and the
minority leader of the U.S. House of Representa-
tives. The Nixon administration was on the brink
of collapse as evidence of its criminal involve-
ment in the WATERGATE break-in and cover-up
mounted. The scandal ultimately destroyed the
Nixon White House, forcing the president to
resign from office to avoid IMPEACHMENT.As a
result, on August 9, 1974, Ford was sworn in as
the nation’s 38th president—and the first chief
executive to be appointed to office.
Named Leslie Lynch King Jr., when born July
14, 1913, in Omaha,Nebraska, Ford spent most of
his childhood in Grand Rapids, where his mother
settled in 1914 after divorcing his father. When
Ford was three years old, his mother remarried,
and the future president was adopted by and
renamed after his stepfather, Gerald Ford Sr.
Ford was a gifted athlete in high school and
a college all-star on championship football
teams at the University of Michigan. After grad-
uating from Michigan in 1935, he turned down
offers to play professional football and instead
coached football and boxing at Yale University
for five years. Ford attended Yale Law School
during this time, and graduated in 1941 in the
top third of his class.
After briefly practicing law in Grand Rapids,
he enlisted in 1942 for a four-year tour with the
Navy during WORLD WAR II. When the war
ended, Ford returned to Grand Rapids and
reestablished his law practice. He married Eliza-
beth (“Betty”) Bloomer Warren in 1948, and by
1957, the couple had four children.
Ford was first elected to the U.S. House of
Representatives from Michigan’s Fifth Congres-
sional District in 1948. He served in the House
for 25 years, consistently winning reelection in
his home district by 60 percent or more of the
vote. A domestic affairs moderate and a fiscal
conservative, Ford was assigned to the Public
Works Committee during his first term in Con-
gress. In 1951, he managed to transfer commit-
tees, and subsequently served on the influential
House Appropriations Committee until 1965.
Ford supported large defense budgets and a
strong foreign policy, and opposed federal
spending for several domestic social programs.
After the 1963 assassination of President
JOHN F. KENNEDY, Ford was selected to serve on
the WARREN COMMISSION, a bipartisan task
force set up to investigate Kennedy’s murder.
Later, Ford coauthored a book supporting the
Warren Commission’s report that Kennedy was
killed by lone gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.
In 1963, Ford became chair of the House
Republican Conference, and in 1964, he was
named minority leader of the House of Repre-
sentatives. At this stage in Ford’s political career,
his greatest ambition was to become Speaker of
the House. However, because Congress was con-
trolled by a majority of Democrats, Ford’s goal
was unattainable.
Ford was a GOP loyalist who campaigned
tirelessly for other Republican candidates. An
