38th President: Gerald Ruldolph Ford
Years in Office: 1974 -- 1977  ( 3 yrs )
Party:  Republican
Vice President:  Nelson A. Rockefeller
First Lady: Elizabeth Warren Ford
Year Born: 1913
Year Died:  no data

As the country's only president not to have been elected either to the presidency or the vice presidency,  Gerald Ford pledged to bring honor and stability back to the office of the presidency.

    The Omaha - born Ford had been a lineman for the University of Michigan football team. Rather than professional football,  he opted for Yale Law School.

    Soon after passing the bar in 1941, he joined the Navy, earning the rank of lieutenant commander by war's end.  He was elected to the House of Representatives from Michigan in 1948,  were he stayed for a quarter of a century.

    Upon succeeding to the presidency, he behaved with the utmost delicacy to ensure a smooth transition at an acutely unstable moment in American political history.  He adhered to Nixon's foreign policy, maintaining détente with the Soviet Union and China.  Troubled with inflation and unemployment, however foreshadowed his failure in the coming election.