Ford

President Gerald R. Ford

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President Gerald R. Ford, whose brief, unelected tenure in the nation's highest office brought a measure of healing to a country badly wounded and divided by the Watergate scandal, was eulogized in a Washington, D.C., funeral service as a leader whose name "was a synonym for integrity." Ford, who had a bout with pneumonia last January and two heart treatments in August, died Dec. 26 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif. He was 93. President George W. Bush, in his eulogy Jan. 2 in Washington National Cathedral, said, "In President Ford, the world saw the best of America and America found a man whose character and leadership would bring calm and healing to one of the most divisive moments in our nation's history." The president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops offered a similar sentiment in a Dec. 27 statement, calling Ford "a great and good man who served his country with distinction." "As a healing presence for the nation at a time when it was much needed, President Ford earned his country's lasting gratitude," said Bishop William S. Skylstad of Spokane, Wash. "We pray for the repose of the soul of our 38th president and express our hearfelt condolences to his wife and family." Ford had lain in state for two days in the Capitol Rotunda, where thousands of Americans paid tribute to him, before the state funeral attended by more than 3,000 people, including the three living ex-presidents, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Interment was in Grand Rapids, Mich., which he represented in Congress for 25 years, the last eight as Republican minority leader. In October 1973, when President Richard M. Nixon's vice president, Spiro T. Agnew, resigned after pleading no contest to tax fraud charges, Ford became the first U.S. vice president chosen under the 25th Amendment's provisions for filling a vacancy in that post by presidential nomination and congressional confirmation. When Nixon resigned the following year during the Watergate tumult, Ford became the first man to achieve the presidency without election to national office. During Ford's 30-month presidency, South Vietnam fell to the communist forces of the North, high Nixon administration officials were found guilty of Watergate crimes, a blue-ribbon commission found the CIA was engaged in illegal activities, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, the United States took in more than 140,000 South Vietnamese refugees and the country celebrated its bicentennial. In his 1979 autobiography, "A Time to Heal," he said he regarded healing the country after Watergate as his greatest accomplishment. The single most important act in that effort, taken a month after he was sworn in, was to pardon his disgraced predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, of any crimes he may have committed in the Watergate cover-up. It was an action that provoked far wider and deeper anger than he had expected, but it prevented a lengthy trial that almost surely would have mired the nation in deeper divisions and bitterness. Ford is survived by his wife, Betty, and their four children, Michael, Jack, Steven and Susan.

President Gerald R. Ford