Ivan M. Tribe, 33°
111 High Street, McArthur, Ohio 45651

President and Brother Ford has his place in history as one who did his part to heal a troubled land in turbulent times.

President Ford at work in the Oval Office
Photo: Courtesy the Gerald R. Ford Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan

It hardly seems like more than a quarter century since the most recent of the 14 confirmed Master Mason Presidents left office. To be sure there have been Masons on national major party tickets since then (Lloyd Bentsen, Robert Dole, Jack Kemp), but only Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., sat in the Oval Office as the occupant. Coming to the Presidency at a difficult time in the country's history and under what are still unique circumstances, Bro. Ford fulfilled the Chief Executive Office with courage and dignity.

Gerald Ford began life in a distant locale from the places where his name would be forever etched on the pages of history. He was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr. on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska. However, the King marriage soon disintegrated, and the young mother, Dorothy Gardner King, took her baby son back to her parents' home in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she subsequently met and married Gerald Rudolf Ford who adopted her young son and changed his name (Ford changed the spelling of his middle name to Rudolph). The elder Ford owned a paint and varnish company. At various times, he served as Kent County Republican Chairman, and held memberships in the Elks, Masons, and Shrine. Dorothy Gardner Ford was active in a number of local community and civic groups. Jerry described his adoptive father as a "man of impeccable integrity who exerted the strongest influence on his life." As for his mother, she was a "selfless" and caring lady. He recalled seeing his biological father only twice, once at age 17 when he gave him $25 and once when he was in law school.

As Gerald Ford grew into adolescence, he developed into a stellar athlete and became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Grand Rapids South High School in 1931 and received a football scholarship to attend the University of Michigan. With the country mired in the Great Depression and with money scarce, Ford held a variety of part-time jobs to help with expenses. The future President has been described as generally a B student who earned only four A grades as an undergraduate. Jerry Ford played center, second team of the offensive Wolverine line, on undefeated teams as a sophomore and junior. As a starter in his senior year, he was voted Most Valuable Player on the 1934 squad from Ann Arbor. He also played in the 1935 East-West Shrine Game in San Francisco and also in the College All-Star Game against the Chicago Bears. As a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity member, he did dishes to help cover expenses. Upon graduation in 1935, he received pro offers from both the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, but chose instead to go to Yale Law School.

At Yale, Ford helped coach football and boxing in order to pay his way. Finally admitted into the law program in 1938, the future President's classmates included such notables as future Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart (of Lafayette Lodge No. 81 in Cincinnati, Ohio) and future Secretary of State Cyrus Vance. Dabbling in the political issues of the day, the law student supported the presidential candidacy of Brother Wendell Willkie (of Coventry Lodge No. 655 in Akron, Ohio) and joined the isolationist-oriented America First Committee. However, like his political hero Senator and Brother Arthur Vandenberg (of Grand River Lodge No. 34 in Michigan), Ford's views began to change in the next several months. Graduating law school in January 1941, Jerry returned to Grand Rapids to study for the Michigan Bar exams, which he passed in June. Thereafter, he formed a law partnership with Philip A. Buchen. This ended when Ford enlisted in the U. S. Navy several weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Serving in the Navy from April 1942 to February 1946, Jerry Ford rose in rank from Ensign to Lieutenant Commander. He first served as a physical-fitness instructor, but in 1943 requested sea duty and received assignment to the USS Monterey, a light aircraft carrier. His ship took part in most of the major battles in the Pacific including assaults on Wake Island, Okinawa, and the recapture of the Philippines. The young officer earned ten battle stars and survived a typhoon. After hostilities concluded, Ford spent the remainder of his Navy duty at the base in Glenview, Illinois.

After the war, Jerry Ford resumed his law practice with another firm-Butterfield, Keeney, and Amberg-back in his hometown of Grand Rapids. He quickly became a member of such veterans groups as the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and AMVETS. Ford also began to take a more serious role in politics, particularly to the local congressional seat, then held by Bartel J. Jonkman, a staunch isolationist and vocal critic of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the newly converted internationalist and the political figure Ford probably admired most. Ford entered the 1948 primary against the incumbent and managed to win by more than 9,000 votes. That November, the young veteran won what was generally considered a safe seat for Republicans by a margin of more than 28,000 votes.

During the year prior to his election to Congress, Ford also began a serious romance with 30-year-old Elizabeth (Betty) Ann Bloomer Warren. They married on October 15, 1948, at Grace Episcopal Church in Grand Rapids in the midst of his congressional campaign. The couple subsequently had four children: Michael, Jack, Steven, and Susan. Mrs. Ford became known for her frank and independent views.

Soon after Ford entered Congress, he began his Masonic journey by petitioning Malta Lodge No. 465 in Grand Rapids. He received the Entered Apprentice Degree on July 14, 1949. A year and a half ensued before he was passed to the Degree of Fellowcraft on April 20, 1951. As a courtesy to Malta Lodge, his raising to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason took place in Columbia Lodge No. 3 in Washington, D.C., on May 18, 1951. He remained a member of Malta Lodge until it merged with Doric Lodge No. 342 in Grand Rapids where he is now numbered among its 50-year members. Ford completed his Scottish Rite Degrees in the Valley of Grand Rapids on October 17, 1957, and received the 33° Degree on September 26, 1962. In 1959, he became a noble of Saladin Shrine Temple and also joined Court No. 11 Royal Order of Jesters. Like such notables as Ernest Borgnine, Roy Clark, Glenn Ford, and Jack Kemp, he has appeared in various public service ads on behalf of Shrine Hospitals. As a special honor, though he is a 33° in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, the Supreme Council, Southern Jurisdiction, unanimously elected President Ford to the Grand Cross Court of Honour on October 16, 1975.

Gerald Ford went on to be elected to his Congressional seat a total of 13 times, always by at least 60% of the popular vote. During this time, he established himself as a moderate conservative in domestic politics and-like his mentor Vandenberg-a supporter of internationalism and bi-partisan foreign policy. He set as his ultimate goal the position of Speaker of the House, an objective that seemed increasingly remote given the solid majorities that House Democrats commanded between 1955 and 1995. However, he did attain the position of House Minority Leader in 1965, and he worked tirelessly on behalf of GOP Congressional candidates. It was in this capacity that this writer twice met Brother Ford in the later 1960s when he spoke on behalf of Tenth District Congressman Clarence Miller. While as minority leader, Ford made a few enemies. President Johnson, for instance, complained that Ford had "spent too much time playing football without a helmet." Defending his integrity, Martha Griffiths, a Democratic colleague, in 1974 said she "never knew Mr. Ford to make a dishonest statement nor a statement part-true and part-false." Philosophically, Ford's political position bore considerable resemblance to that of Richard Nixon, but without the negative character aspects accredited to Nixon.

President Gerald R. Ford, Jr., 33°, G.C., consults with Ill. Robert J. Dole, 33°, G.C. Photo: Courtesy the Gerald R. Ford Library, Ann Arbor, Michigan

After winning his 13th term in 1972, Gerald Ford concluded that he would never become Speaker and decided to retire after one more term (when Nixon's second term would presumably terminate). Fate, however, dealt him a different hand. Although the Watergate Scandal dominated much of the headlines during 1973, a separate investigation led to the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew in October. A new Constitutional Amendment provided for filling the vacancy through Presidential appointment with Congressional consent. According to well-founded rumors, Nixon himself would ideally have preferred former Texas Governor and recently retired Treasury Secretary John Connally and wanted to maintain party unity by avoiding such ideological figures as Ronald Reagan and Nelson Rockefeller, so he chose Ford, a middle-of-the-road person certain to win easy confirmation. Gerald Ford won Senate approval 92-3 and House approval 387-35. Sworn in on December 6, 1973, the man from Grand Rapids served just eight months as Vice President.

The deepening fallout from Water-gate eventually engulfed the Nixon White House. Facing impeachment, the President resigned effective at noon on August 9, 1974. Ford took the oath of office a few seconds later, and the nation had their 38th Chief Executive and 14th Masonic President. In spite of high tensions engendered by the trauma, Ford enjoyed relatively high poll ratings until issuing a pardon to Nixon in December, an unpopular act in many circles at the time, but probably the best way to bring closure to an emotionally divisive issue.

Ford came to the Presidency at one of the most tension-filled times of anyone who ascended to the Oval Office on short notice. Congress was not in session when Brother Andrew Johnson replaced Abe Lincoln. Despite the still-raging World War II, Brother Harry Truman had a friendly Congress until January 1947. Ford had an unfriendly Congress, and the Nixon pardon guaranteed him one of the shortest political "honeymoons" on record. Congress became even less friendly after the pardon, and the Republican minority became even smaller after the November 1974 elections. Moreover, Republicans in Congress were increasingly divided between moderate and conservative factions. Within the cabinet, a feud between Secretary of State Kissinger and Secretary of Defense Schlesinger made life difficult for the President. In retrospect, that he managed to accomplish anything in his nearly two-and-one-half-year tenure seems remarkable.

President Ford and his wife Betty Photo: Courtesy the Gerald R. Ford Library, Ann Arbor, Mich.

During his time in the White House, Ford battled inflation with limited success, secured the release of American sailors from the Mayaguez, and did his best to cool the emotional tensions that still smoldered from the traumas associated with Viet Nam and Watergate. One bright spot restoring national spirits was the July 4, 1976, celebration of 200 years of independence. In retrospect, Ford's own evaluation in a 1988 interview with historian John Robert Greene is one that few could argue with today; he said, I "left the White House in better shape than when I took it over."

In the bicentennial year of 1976, Ford faced challenges on both ends of the political spectrum. A primary challenge from former California Governor Ronald Reagan almost succeeded and hampered Republicans as they went into the general election. In the fall, a nearly unknown former Georgia Governor, Jimmy Carter, squeezed out a narrow victory. Ford admits he erred in underestimating both. In his autobiography, A Time To Heal, Brother Ford concedes that he viewed the Georgian as a "flash in the pan" who had "little more going for him than a winning smile," but in 1976, the voters turned to Carter as the outsider who could bring a fresh approach to national problems. Even with the dark cloud of the Nixon pardon hanging over his head, a hostile press who viewed him negatively, a major gaffe concerning Poland in the debate over foreign policy, Ford almost won. In an electoral vote of 297 for Carter and 241 for Ford, analysts have pointed out that a shift of 8,000 votes in states of Ohio and Hawaii, narrowly won by Carter, would have changed the outcome of the race.

Ford retired and has generally proved himself to be a former President with grace and style. He briefly considered running in 1980, but ultimately chose not to enter the fray. He also decided not to be the Vice Presidential candidate in 1980. Retired now for more than 25 years, he still, on occasion, takes the role of an elder statesmen, but unlike some former Presidents, he does not seek the limelight. Now nearing 90, Brother Ford has demonstrated himself to be one of the healthiest and longest-living emeritus White House occupants.

While Ill. Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., 33°, G.C., will not be remembered as one of America's greatest leaders, he certainly has made a place in history as one who did his part to heal a troubled land in turbulent times. Ford's biographer, John Robert Greene, concludes "as a moral leader, Ford surpassed the examples of every president" in the two decades that followed Eisenhower. "If I'm remembered, it will probably be for healing the land," Ford once remarked. He has served his country well.

Note: The best book on Gerald Ford is by John Robert Greene, The Presidency of Gerald R. Ford (The University Press of Kansas, 1995). Ford's autobiography A Time To Heal (Harper and Row, 1979) is also very worth reading. For the details of his Masonic record, I am indebted to the staff of the Grand Lodge of Michigan, the Valley of Grand Rapids, Saladin Shrine Temple, and the brief note in Masonic Americana I, 3rd Edition, p. 3. A somewhat different version of this article first appeared in the February 2003 issue of Knight Templar magazine (Vol. XLIX, No. 2).

Ivan M. Tribe is a member of Albany Lodge No. 723 in Albany, Ohio, and the Scottish Rite Bodies of Cambridge, Ohio, N.M.J. In September 2000, he received the 33° in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A Knight of the York Cross of Honor and a Professor of History at the University of Rio Grande in Ohio, he was recently appointed Associate Editor for The Encyclopedia of Gospel Music and is a frequent contributor to various Masonic publications, including the Scottish Rite Journal.