Gerald Ford

Described as

president of the United States from 1974 to 1977 (1913–2006)

Other names

Gerald R. Ford, Gerald R. Ford, Jr., Leslie Lynch King Jr., Gerald Ford Jr., Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr., Ford, Leslie Lynch King, Gerald R. Ford Jr., Leslie King, President Ford, Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford Jr., G. R. Ford

Born

July 14, 1913 · 11 references

Died

December 26, 2006 · 11 references

Born in

Gerald R. Ford Birthsite and Gardens · 1 reference

Died in

Rancho Mirage · 1 reference

Buried in

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum

Cause of death

arteriosclerosis · 1 reference

Name at birth

Leslie Lynch King Jr.

Citizen of

United States

Occupation

politician · 1 reference; naval officer; lawyer; gridiron football player; autobiographer; American football player; statesperson; vice president · 1 reference

Positions held

President of the United States (1974–1977); United States representative (1949–1973); Vice President of the United States (1973–1974)

Political party

Republican Party

Worked for

Princeton University; Harvard University; Columbia University

Education

University of Michigan (–1935) · 1 reference; Yale Law School (–1941) · 1 reference; University of Michigan Law School; Yale University · 1 reference; Alexandria City High School; Gordon–Conwell Theological Seminary

Member of

American Legion; Veterans of Foreign Wars; Scouting America (1924–1930) · 2 references

Teams

Michigan Wolverines football · 1 reference

Sport

American football

Awards

Presidential Medal of Freedom (1999) · 1 reference; Profile in Courage Award (2001) · 2 references; Congressional Gold Medal; Theodore Roosevelt Award (1975); Horatio Alger Award (1983) · 1 reference; World War II Victory Medal; Francis Boyer Award (1977) · 1 reference; doctor honoris causa of Keiō University; honorary doctor of the Ohio State University; Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, 1st Class (1997) · 2 references; Eagle Scout (1927) · 2 references; American Campaign Medal · 1 reference; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal · 1 reference; Distinguished Eagle Scout Award · 1 reference; honorary doctor of the Hofstra University

Field

gun control

Spouse

Betty Ford (1948–2006) · 1 reference

Children

Michael Gerald Ford · 1 reference; John Gardner Ford · 1 reference; Steven Ford · 1 reference; Susan Ford · 1 reference

Father

Leslie Lynch King, Sr. · 1 reference

Mother

Dorothy Ayer Gardner Ford · 1 reference

Siblings

Thomas Gardner Ford

Religion

Episcopal Church

Military branch

United States Navy (1942–1946) · 1 reference

Military rank

lieutenant commander

Lived in

Gerald R. Ford, Jr., House (1955–1974) · 1 reference; President Gerald R. Ford, Jr. Boyhood Home (1921–1930) · 1 reference

Height

1.83 m (6 ft 0 in) · 1 reference

Wikipedias with a page

175

Wikidata item Q9582 (wikidata.org/wiki/Q9582), public domain (CC0). Copied November 13, 2026.

Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913 – December 26, 2006) was the 38th president of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977. He assumed the presidency after the resignation of Richard Nixon, under whom he served as the 40th vice president from 1973 to 1974 after the resignation of Spiro Agnew. A member of the Republican Party, Ford previously served in the United States House of Representatives from 1949 to 1973.
Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, and raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, where he also played for the university football team, winning two national championships, before coaching football at Yale University, and eventually graduating from Yale Law School with a Bachelor of Laws. Afterward, he served in the U.S. Naval Reserve from 1942 to 1946. Ford was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948 from Michigan's 5th congressional district, and served in this capacity for nearly twenty-five years, the final eight of them as the House minority leader. During his career in the House, he was also part of the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. In December 1973, two months after the resignation of vice president Agnew, Ford was appointed to the vice presidency, becoming the first person appointed to become vice president under the terms of the twenty-fifth amendment. After the resignation of President Nixon in August 1974, Ford immediately assumed the presidency.
Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession. His presidency was also overshadowed by the Watergate Scandal. In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. Foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, and by the corresponding curb on the powers of the president. Ford signed the Helsinki Accords, which marked a move toward détente in the Cold War. With the collapse of South Vietnam eight months into his presidency, U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War essentially ended. In the 1976 Republican presidential primary, he narrowly defeated Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, but narrowly lost the general election to the Democratic candidate, Jimmy Carter. Ford remains the only person to serve as president without winning a presidential election for president or vice president.
After leaving office in 1977, Ford remained active in the Republican Party, but his moderate views on various social issues increasingly put him at odds with conservative members of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. He also set aside the enmity he had felt towards Carter following the 1976 presidential election and the two former presidents developed a close friendship. After experiencing a series of health problems, he died at his home in Rancho Mirage, California, in 2006. Surveys of historians and political scientists have ranked Ford as a below-average president, though retrospective public polls on his time in office were more positive.

Born, in its opening lines

July 14, 1913

Died, in its opening lines

December 26, 2006

From the Wikipedia article “Gerald Ford” (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Ford), by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Copied November 13, 2026; not changed.