Raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Ford received his BA in 1935 from the University of Michigan, where he stared as a football center. Declining offers from professional football teams, he earned an LLB from Yale University in 1941.
During World War II he served four years in the navy, first teaching aviators and then working as an aviation operations officer aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Monterey.
In 1948, Ford a Republican, was elected to the US House of Representatives and was continually reelected thereafter, becoming House minority leader in 1965.
President Nixon appointed Ford to the vice presidency after a plea of nolo contendere to income tax evasion forced Vice President Spiro Agnew from that office. The first vice president to take office in the middle of an administration, Ford was sworn in on December 6, 1973.
President Nixon resigned the office of the presidency due to Watergate scandal and in August 9, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford assumed the presidency. Ford granted Nixon a full pardon for any crimes that he might have committed as president.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter the former governor of Georgia defeated Gerald Ford to become president of the United States.
After leaving the presidency, Ford joined many corporate boards gave numerous public addresses, published his autobiography, A Time to Heal (1979) and lived primarily in Palm Springs California. After a series of illness, President Ford died on December 26, 2006.
President Gerald Ford
