U.S. Presidents / Gerald Ford

Gerald Ford

1913 - 2006

Gerald Ford

We are bound together by the most powerful of all ties, our fervent love for freedom and independence, which knows no homeland but the human heart. Remarks in Helsinki

Overview

Gerald R. Ford became President of the United States on August 9, 1974, under extraordinary circumstances. Owing to the Watergate scandal, Ford's predecessor, Richard Nixon, had resigned under the threat of congressional impeachment. Ford assumed leadership of a nation whose domestic economy and international prestige—both seemingly sound in the decades after World War II—had deteriorated considerably. Just as important, Watergate, as well as the debacle of the Vietnam War, had profoundly shaken the American public's confidence in its leaders. Gerald Ford stepped into the breach opened up by these converging dynamics and achieved mixed results in addressing the twin problems of economic and geopolitical decline. 

Fast Facts

Gerald Rudolph Ford
Omaha, Nebraska
University of Michigan (1935); Yale University Law School (1941)
Episcopalian
Lawyer, Public Official
Republican
“Jerry”
October 15, 1948, to Elizabeth "Betty" Bloomer Warren (1918–2011)
Michael Gerald (1950– ); John Gardner (1952– ); Steven Meigs (1956– ); Susan Elizabeth (1957– )
38
Grand Rapids, Michigan
John Robert Greene

Chicago Style

Miller Center of Public Affairs, University of Virginia. “Gerald Ford.” Accessed October 25, 2024. https://millercenter.org/president/ford.

Professor of History

John Robert Greene

Professor Greene is the Paul J. Schupf Professor of History and Humanities at Cazenovia College.