Ford, Gerald R(udolph) (1913–2006)

38th president of the USA 1974–77, a Republican. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1948, was nominated to the vice-presidency by Richard Nixon in 1973 on the resignation of Spiro Agnew, and became president in 1974, when Nixon was forced to resign following the Watergate scandal. He granted Nixon a full pardon in September 1974.

Ford was appointed vice-president in December 1973, at a time when Nixon's re-election campaign was already being investigated for ‘dirty tricks’, and became president the following August. His visit to Vladivostok in 1974 resulted in agreement with the USSR on strategic arms limitation. He survived two assassination attempts in September 1975, and was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 election by a narrow margin. In August 1999, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in May 2001 received the John F Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for his pardoning of Nixon.

Ford was born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an All-American footballer at college, and graduated from Yale Law School. He served in the US navy 1942–46, and became a Republican representative from Michigan in 1948. In 1965 he became House minority leader, and permanent chair of the Republican national conventions in 1968 and 1972.