Images and More: Passed Presidents - # 38

By 2008, the Dead Presidents Quest was down to the Final Four. In April, I lucked out when Beck had a job in Michigan. I tagged along and spent a day shooting the capitol in Lansing and visiting the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids.

Adjacent to the museum, on the shore of the Grand River, is the president’s grave. He died on this date in 2006. He was our oldest president, having lived 93 years and 165 days. This contrasts with the fact that his was the shortest time in office of any president who did not die on the job.

The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum,
Grand Rapids, MI (9 April 2008)

Gerald R. Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska in 1913 and named Leslie Lynch King, Jr. His parents divorced soon after and when his mother married Gerald R. Ford, Sr., he took the new name. It’s ironic that events like a stumble down an airplane step and Chevy Chase’s parodies cemented the reputation that he was a klutz when in fact, he might have been our most athletic president. He was a multi-sport star in high school and a two-way standout on two undefeated University of Michigan football teams. The Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions offered him pro contracts but he went to Yale where he could coach their football team and attend law school.

In Front of the Ford Museum (9 April 2008)

Ford was elected to Congress in 1948. He served in the House for 24 years and rose through the Republican Party ranks to become the Minority Leader. In 1973, when Spiro Agnew had to quit because he was a crook, Richard Nixon needed someone above reproach to be his Vice President...the first such appointment under the new 25th Amendment to the Constitution. The following year, when Tricky Dick went down, Jerry became the only man to serve as Vice President and President without being elected to either position. He was nominated for another term in 1976 but lost to Jimmy Carter.

Elizabeth Bloomer, the Martha Graham Dancer (9 April 2008)

I love unusual shots of famous people. This was taken in the Ford Museum; through the glass into a display of early life information. Some First Ladies have great stories of their own...even if their graves are diminished and removed from the president’s...like afterthoughts. “Oh, right. He had a wife. She’s over there by that small marker.” In those crazy 70’s, Betty Ford made headlines by being FOR the Equal Rights Amendment AND abortion rights. She was forthright about her need for substance abuse treatment and went on to found facilities that still bear her name. Her public cancer treatment prompted many women to seek help and allowed us to stop whispering the word ‘breast’. She was a class act and deserves a last resting place equal to that of her husband’s.

On March 11, 1985, I was in the audience at Tulane University in New Orleans to see former presidents Carter and Ford discuss the presidency. They represented opposing parties and held (what we understood at the time) conservative and liberal positions but they had much in common. They were most interested in what was good for the nation and its people. They were friendly, considerate and appreciated each other. Those were the days.

After he died, I saved a tribute from Pat Oliphant, the editorial cartoonist. He recalled one of the annual parties the ex-president had for his White House alumni. Oliphant was the evening’s entertainment as he told stories from the era and drew caricatures of the main personalities. He concluded his routine with a sketch of the president, shown as he often was in those days, with a Band-Aid on his forehead. The cartoonist notes that he got a little carried away with the applause and went over to where the president was sitting to draw a large Band-Aid on Mr. Ford’s actual forehead. The 38th president laughed and let the joke run its course. Try that on Richard Nixon. Your butt would be in Guantanamo faster than you could say, “Sock it to ME?”

He was a good guy...honest, hard-working and reasonable. I didn’t like the Nixon pardon but it was probably the right call at the time. And guys like Cheney and Rumsfeld came from his inner circle but those were the days when Republicans wanted to govern, not rule. Times have changed.