On his mother's side, Ford traced his American ancestry to Ezra Chase, who was born in Massachusetts in 1717. The president's grandfather on the King side was Charles Henry King, a prosperous wool merchant whose business interests were in Wyoming.  

Gerald Ford, Sr., who had a reputation for integrity, hard work, and community involvement, instilled his values in young Gerald. His mother taught him to be even-tempered. The depression years were not easy for the family. The stock market crash of 1929 almost wiped out Ford's paint and varnish company. As a high school student, Jerry Ford waited on tables and washed dishes at a restaurant to earn money.  

At South High School, he won all-city and all-state honors in football. At the University of Michigan, Ford was a center on Michigan's undefeated championship football teams of 1932 and 1933. He was voted the team's most valuable player in 1934, and in 1935 he was selected as a College All-Star. When Ford graduated with a liberal arts degree in 1935, he refused offers from the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions to play professional football. He decided instead to coach football and boxing at Yale University. Ford coached at Yale from 1935 to 1940. In 1938 he began to take law courses, and he was in the top third of his class when he received his degree from Yale Law School in 1941.  

A natural athlete, Ford kept up his interest in sports and fitness. Past the age of 60 he still liked to swim daily; and he skied, golfed, and played tennis.  

Ford was admitted to the bar in 1941 and practiced law for a short time before joining the United States Navy in April 1942. He served for 47 months, 18 of them as an aviation operations officer aboard the light aircraft carrier USS Monterey.  

When his naval service ended, Ford had the rank of lieutenant commander. He returned to Grand Rapids and his law practice; but he was interested in politics. His wartime experience made him think more about the role of the United States in the world.  

Michigan's senior United States senator, Arthur Vandenberg of Grand Rapids, had forsaken his longtime isolationism to become an outstanding spokesman for internationalism. In 1948 he encouraged Ford to run against the isolationist Bartel Jonkman, of the Fifth Congressional District. Ford won the primary election by nearly a 2-to-1 margin. He went on to defeat his Democratic opponent with 74,191 votes against 46,972. In 12 subsequent elections, Ford carried his district with at least 60 percent of the vote.  

The Grand Rapids Junior Chamber of Commerce gave Ford its Distinguished Service Award in 1948. In 1949 the United States Junior Chamber of commerce cited him as one of ten outstanding young Americans.  

Through friends Ford met Elizabeth (Betty) Bloomer Warren, a fashion coordinator for a Grand Rapids department store. She was born in Chicago, Ill., April 8, 1918, but she lived most of her life in Grand Rapids. She had modeled clothes for a living and had studied dance in New York City for a time with Martha Graham. A five-year marriage had ended in divorce. She and Ford were married on Oct. 15, 1948. They had three sons and a daughter-- Michael Gerald, born 1950; John Gardner, born 1952; Steven Meigs, born 1956; and Susan Elizabeth, born 1957.  

Ford often said that his ambition was to become speaker of the House; but in 1973 it was unlikely that Republicans would soon be controlling the House. Ford was thinking about ending his political career in 1976 and returning, perhaps, to law practice; but then came the call to the vice-presidency.  

Gerald Ford was sworn in as 40th vice-president of the United States in the chamber of the House that he loved so well. A joint session of Congress was convened for the occasion. During his eight months in that post, Ford flew more than 100,000 miles and made more than 500 appearances to rally his party. The Republicans were in large part agonized, along with other Americans, by the scandals known collectively as Watergate. Former Nixon aides and associates were being indicted, tried, and sentenced to prison terms. Nixon was resisting subpoenas for evidence, and the House of Representatives was weighing impeachment. Ford supported Nixon, but he also urged him to cooperate with the special Watergate prosecutor.  

In President Nixon's resignation speech, he said that the leadership of the country would be in good hands with Ford. On the following day, as Nixon's letter of resignation was delivered to the secretary of state, Ford became president. Shortly afterward, he took the oath of office administered by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger of the United States Supreme Court. Members of the Nixon Cabinet and congressional leaders attended the ceremony in the East Room of the White House, where Nixon had said farewell to friends and staff that morning.  

In a brief address, President Ford called on the country to bind up the wounds of Watergate. "Our long national nightmare is over," he said. "Our Constitution works. Our great republic is a government of laws and not of men." He promised to follow his instincts of openness and candor. His voice broke as he said, "May our former president who brought peace to millions find it for himself."  

As President, Ford tried to calm earlier controversies by granting former President Nixon a full pardon. His nominee for Vice President, former Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, was the second person to fill that office by appointment. Gradually, Ford selected a cabinet of his own.  

Ford established his policies during his first year in office, despite opposition from a heavily Democratic Congress. His first goal was to curb inflation. Then, when recession became the Nation's most serious domestic problem, he shifted to measures aimed at stimulating the economy. But, still fearing inflation, Ford vetoed a number of non-military appropriations bills that would have further increased the already heavy budgetary deficit. During his first 14 months as President he vetoed 39 measures. His vetoes were usually sustained.  

Ford continued as he had in his Congressional days to view himself as "a moderate in domestic affairs, a conservative in fiscal affairs, and a dyed-in-the-wool internationalist in foreign affairs." A major goal was to help business operate more freely by reducing taxes upon it and easing the controls exercised by regulatory agencies. "We...declared our independence 200 years ago, and we are not about to lose it now to paper shufflers and computers," he said.  

In foreign affairs Ford acted vigorously to maintain U. S. power and prestige after the collapse of Cambodia and South Viet Nam. Preventing a new war in the Middle East remained a major objective; by providing aid to both Israel and Egypt, the Ford Administration helped persuade the two countries to accept an interim truce agreement. Detente with the Soviet Union continued. President Ford and Soviet leader Leonid I. Brezhnev set new limitations upon nuclear weapons.  

President Ford won the Republican nomination for the Presidency in 1976, but lost the election to his Democratic