Gerald Ford Biography

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Gerald Ford, the thirty-eighth President of the United States, was born on July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska to Dorothy Ayer Gardner King and Leslie Lynch King. Ford was named after his father, Leslie Lynch King Jr., who was later divorces by his mother because of domestic violence problems. After divorcing Leslie Lynch King, Ford’s mother moved the two to Grand Rapids, Michigan where she met Gerald R. Ford. Ford’s mother called her son Gerald R. Ford Jr., and his name was legally changed in 1935. Gerald Ford went to South High School where he shined athletically and academically. He then proceeded to go the the University of Michigan in Ann Harbor and majored in economics. Ford excelled at the sport of football and was voted the most valuable player in 1934. Because of his skills in football, Ford received two proposals from the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers. Ford declined and chose to be a boxing coach as well as an assist at varsity football coach at Yale. Ford chose Yale because he wanted to practice law. Ford graduated with his L.L.B. (Bachelor of Law Degree) in 1941 and in the top twenty-five percent of his class. In the April of 1942, Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve and practiced physical fitness. Later in life, Ford would marry Elizabeth Anne Bloomer and they would have four children together.
There are many factors to take into account when looking at Ford’s presidency. One of the biggest is how he came into office. After Spiro Agnew, the Vice President to Richard Nixon, resigned because of bribery and tax evasions, Gerald Ford was selected to be the new vice president to Nixon. Richard Nixon was involved in the Watergate Scandal which led to him resigning as well and placing Ford in the position of the Presid...

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...t of his life was a severe punishment in itself, the equivalent to serving a jail term” (http://www.propublica.org/article/presidential-pardons-how-the-nixon-pardon-strained-a-presidential-friendshi). Many people believe this decision cost him the 1976 election against Jimmy Carter.
One of Gerald Ford’s greatest achievements was his relationship with Japan. Ford made the first visit to Japan by a president on November 17, 1974. Ford’s main purpose of this trip was to establish and maintain Japanese and American relations. This was the first trip Ford made after Nixon’s resignation (http://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-by-era/seventies/resources/president-ford%E2%80%99s-remarks-japan-1974). During the speech Ford made, he commended that Japanese and expressed his desire to uphold an alliance between the two nations. Gerald Ford also made speeches across the world.

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