1. Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States from 1974 to 1977. Gerald Ford was the only president to have received the highest rank of eagle scout as part of the Boy Scouts of America. He also holds an American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal and Liberation Medal.
2. Gerald Ford was the captain of his high school football team. He later played long snapper, linebacker and center for the Wolverines while attending the University of Michigan. In 1932 and 1933 they were undefeated.
3. There was controversy over a Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets game when they refused to play the Wolverines because Ford’s best friend and team mate Willis Ward was black. Ford refused to play if Willis Ward was excluded from the game. Ward in the end convinced Ford to play.
4. After the attack on pearl harbour in 1941, Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve where he became a trainer. He taught ordinance, first aid, elementary navigation skills, gunnery as well as football, boxing and swimming.
5. While in the Navy he reached the rank of Lieutenant Commander. During his military career, he was assigned to the aircraft carrier USS Monterey. He was involved in the strikes on Kavieng, New Guinea and Marianas. It was a key ship in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and Ford almost lost his life when the USS Monterey was damaged by a typhoon.
6. After Spiro Agnew resigned as the Vice President after criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, Gerald Ford was nominated to take his place. He was Vice President during the Watergate scandal. When Richard Nixon resigned as the President, Ford took over the role making him the only President that has not been voted into either presidential role.
7. During his presidency, Ford survived two assassination attempts. The first was in 1975 by a woman named Lynette Fromme who was one of Charles Manson’s followers. The second was seventeen days later by a woman named Sarah Jane Moore who attempted to shoot him from a crowd. Both served life imprisonment and have been paroled since. On 26th December, 2006, at the age of 93, Gerald Ford died at home in Rancho Mirage, California.
