Note: Gerald R. Ford was the first and, to date, only president never to have been elected to either the vice presidency or the presidency as a result of balloting by the electoral college. In October 1973 President Richard M. Nixon acted under the terms of the Twenty-fifth Amendment and nominated Ford, then a Republican congressman, to replace Vice President Spiro Agnew, who was forced to resign because of criminal misconduct. Ford was confirmed as vice president by both the House and the Senate and was sworn in on December 6, 1973. When, as a result of the Watergate scandal, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9, 1974, Ford became president and was sworn in at 12:00 noon that day. He subsequently chose Nelson Rockefeller, former Republican governor of New York, to serve as his vice president, and Congress confirmed his choice.
Ford Administration (August 9, 1974-January 20, 1977)
Vice President: Nelson A. Rockefeller Secretary of State: Henry A. Kissinger Secretary of the Treasury: William E. Simon Secretary of Defense: James R. Schlesinger;
Donald Rumsfeld (from November 1975) Attorney General: William B. Saxbe; Edward Levi (from February 1975)
Secretary of the Interior: Rogers Morton; Stanley K. Hathaway (from June 1975); Thomas S. Kleppe (from October 1975) Secretary of Agriculture: Earl L. Butz; John A. Knebel (from November 1976) Secretary of Commerce: Frederick B. Dent; Rogers Morton (from May 1975); Elliot L. Richardson (from February 1976)
Secretary of Labor: Peter J. Brennan; John T. Dunlop (from March 1975); W. J. Usery, Jr. (from February 1976)
Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare: Caspar W. Weinberger; Forrest D. Mathews (from August 1975)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: James T. Lynn; Carla A. Hills (from March 1975)
Secretary of Transportation: Claude S. Brinegar; William T. Coleman, Jr. (from March 1975)
Supreme Court Appointment: John Paul Stevens (1975)
Father: Leslie Lynch King (1881-1941)
Stepfather: Gerald Rudolph Ford (1889-1962)
Mother: Dorothy Ayer Gardner King Ford (1892-1967)
Wife: Elizabeth “Betty” Bloomer Warren (1918— )
Marriage: October 15, 1948
Children: Michael Gerald (1950- ); John
“Jack” (1952- ); Steven Meigs (1956- );
Susan Elizabeth (1957- )
Gerald Ford did not learn that he was adopted until he was a teenager.
For the first few days while he was president, he commuted daily from his home in Alexandria, Virginia, while waiting for the White House to be readied for his occupancy.
Ford survived two assassination attempts within days of each other, one on September 5, 1975, the other on September 22, 1975.
World History
