21 Questions About the 38th President

Dec 19

1. Q: Ford was the only US President born in what US city, and what name appeared on his birth certificate?

A: Ford was born in 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother left her husband, Leslie King, after whom Ford was initially named, just two weeks after his birth, eventually marrying Grand Rapids, Michigan businessman Gerald Ford. Ford was 22 years old when he legally changed his name.

2. Q: As a youth, Ford was the only US President to attain the highest rank in what national organization?

A: Ford earned the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America in 1927, and he later credited this experience with teaching him “the immeasurable worth of scouting’s basic values.”

3. Q: How many national collegiate football titles did Ford help win, and for what team?

A: The 1932 and 1933 University of Michigan football teams, which included Ford on their roster, went undefeated and won two national championships. The next year, Ford’s fourth and final, he was named the squad’s most valuable player.

4. Q: What two professional football teams attempted to recruit Ford upon his graduation from Michigan?

A: Both the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers made offers, but he had resolved to attend law school instead. The Packers, citing the need for a center, offered Ford $110 per game.

5. Q: What law school did Ford attend, and what job did he hold on campus while attending classes?

A: In 1938, Ford entered Yale Law School, where he also served as a coach on the football and boxing teams. Upon graduation, Ford ranked in the top quarter of his law school class.

6. Q: In which branch of the US military did Ford serve?

A: He was honorably discharged from the US Navy in 1946, having received multiple awards for his service in the Pacific theater, including two bronze stars. Ford attained the rank of lieutenant commander, and the first of the Navy’s newest and most advanced class of aircraft carriers is named for him.

7. Q: How long did Ford serve in the US House of Representatives, and what was the highest position he attained there?

A: Ford represented Michigan’s 5th district from 1949 to 1973, concluding with eight years as House Minority Leader. Ford described himself as “a moderate in domestic affairs, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs.”

8. Q: Ford’s opposition to the Vietnam War precipitated what derogatory remark from the sitting US President?

A: In 1968, Lyndon Johnson accused Ford of having played too much football without a helmet. Ford had frequently criticized Johnson for not committing enough resources to the war and failing to offer a coherent strategy for victory.

9. Q: Ford ascended to the US vice presidency after whose resignation?

A: In 1973, former Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew, who initially argued that a sitting vice president could not be indicted and could only be removed from office by impeachment, resigned after pleading no contest to tax evasion charges. He became only the second US vice president to resign the office, after John C. Calhoun in 1832.

10. Q: When did Ford utter these words, “Our long national nightmare is over?”

A: He did so in 1974, upon assuming the office of US president. This followed the resignation of his predecessor, Richard Nixon, who had become embroiled in the Watergate scandal and against whom the Congress had initiated impeachment proceedings.

11. Q: Why did Ford become only the first president since Abraham Lincoln to testify before the US House of Representatives?

A: To defend his decision to pardon Nixon, whom he often referred to not by name but as “my predecessor.” As Ford saw it, a pardon carried a presumption of guilt, and its acceptance constituted an admission of guilt.

12. Q: Whom did Ford appoint as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in 1976?

A: Future US President George HW Bush became its 11th director, a role in which he earned a reputation for improving the agency’s focus and boosting morale.

13. Q: In 1975. two failed assassination attempts against Ford occurred in what US state?

A: In Sacramento, California, a follower of Charles Manson, “Squeaky” Fromme, attempted to kill Ford with a handgun, followed by a second attempt just two weeks later by Sara Jane Moore, also using a handgun. Neither shooter hit Ford, and both were eventually paroled after serving about 30 years in prison.

14. Q: With what headline did the New York Daily News greet Ford’s refusal to provide a federal bailout as New York City faced bankruptcy in 1975?

A: “Ford to City: Drop Dead.” Of course, Ford never uttered such words, and two months later he did sign legislation to provide federal loans to the city.

15. Q: What popular late-night television personality became famous for his satirical portrayals of Ford?

A: Chevy Chase began a series of send ups of Ford during Saturday Night Live’s very first season in 1975, frequently portraying the present as clumsy and out of touch. Ironically, it was Chase himself who in the 1980s sought help for an addiction problem at the Betty Ford Clinic.

16.Q: To what US state did Ford move after he was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election?

A: Ford, the “first skiing president,” moved his family to Colorado, where they owned a 7-bedroom, 9-bathroom retirement home in Beaver Creek for approximately 40 years. The Fords were so familiar to local residents that they even knew their security agents by name.

17. Q: In 1979, Ford published his autobiography, with what title?

A: “Time to Heal,” which was greeted at the time as the shortest and most honest of recent presidential memoirs. The New York Times wrote, “Mr. Ford’s surpassing accomplishment was to have been the kind of man he was, at a time when the nation longed for a leader not given to brooding and plotting.”

18. Q: First Lady Betty Ford drew national attention to what two health conditions?

A: While her husband was president, she underwent treatment for breast cancer, once considered an unmentionable disease, and in 1982, she co-founded the Betty Ford Foundation for the treatment of addictions, having personally battled both opioid addiction and alcoholism.

19. Q: What US presidential candidate considered Ford as a vice-presidential running mate?

A: During the Republican National Convention In 1980, representatives of Ronald Reagan and Ford negotiated over the details, but when journalist Walter Cronkite introduced the notion of a “co-presidency,” the idea was doomed, and Reagan eventually named George HW Bush as his running mate.

20. Q: At the time of his death in 2006, Ford had achieved what US presidential record?

A: He had become the nation’s longest-lived president, dying at the age of 93. This record was subsequently eclipsed by both George HW Bush, who lived to be 94, and Ford’s successor, Jimmy Carter, who is currently 100 years old.

21. Q: Upon his death, Ford was accorded what somewhat unusual national honor?

A: He became the 11th US President to lie in state in the US Capitol, prior to his burial in Grand Rapids. Then-President George W Bush wrote, “With his quiet integrity, common sense, and kind instincts, President Ford helped to heal our land and restore public confidence in the presidency.”