Ford, Gerald Rudolph Public Deposited
Born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. in Omaha, Nebraska; the only child of Leslie and Dorothy Gardner King. They were divorced and his mother remarried Gerald R. Ford. The child was renamed for his stepfather.
Ford played high school football and went to the University of Michigan on a football scholarship. He graduated in 1935. He graduated from the Yale Law School in 1941. Entered the navy in 1942. He served in the Pacific and was discharged with the rank of lieutenant commander in 1946.
Married Elizabeth Anne (Betty) Bloomer in 1948. They had four children.
Ford was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948 and served January 3, 1949, until December 6, 1973. In 1963-64 he served on the Warren Commission that investigated the assassination of Kennedy.
Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew, resigned in 1973. Ford became the first Vice President appointed to fill a vacancy under the provisions of the 25th Amendment. He took office December 6, 1973. Nixon resigned August 9, 1974, and Ford succeeded to the Presidency. He appointed Nelson Rockefeller as his Vice President under the provisions of the 25th Amendment. At that time the country was governed by both a President and Vice President who had not been elected to those positions. Ford lost his attempt for reelection to Jimmy Carter.
Ford appears on the presidential mint medal (USM 140). Design was by Frank Gasparro and Mathew Peloso. Ford appears on the Assay Commission Medal for 1975 (AC-119). The obverse was reduced from the regular Ford medal.
He received the Congressional Gold Medal in 1999.
bio: BDC; BDEB; IntWW 92-93; WAB; WW 93; WWA 94, 04
- 1913-07-14
- 2006-12-26