Thousands of dignitaries gathered into the National Cathedral Tuesday for the last rites of former President Gerald R. Ford.
Official mourners included former President George H.W. Bush, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and President George W. Bush.
All remembered Ford as a decent, genial man of quiet integrity and deep commitment to public service.
Former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw delivered a eulogy, calling Ford “a champion of Main Street values” who wasn’t haunted by “demons” and didn’t come to the White House with “a hit list.”
President George W. Bush walked Ford’s widow, Betty, to her pew at the cathedral as the 3,000-strong, invitation-only congregation rose to its feet.
Ford died the day after Christmas at age 93. He was one of the last living links to the Watergate era.
In 1973, Richard M. Nixon asked Ford — then the House minority leader — to serve as his vice president. Spiro T. Agnew had resigned as vice president after he was targeted in a bribery investigation that stretched back to his days as Maryland’s governor. Within a year, Ford became president when Nixon resigned rather than face impeachment over the Watergate scandal.
Ford was the only president never to win a national election, and in his own time was ridiculed as a bumbling ex-jock who was out of his depth in the White House. Critics dubbed him “the accidental president.”
In the U.S., he will probably be remembered longest for his decision to pardon Nixon.
But mourners said the pardon had to be granted so that the country would stop fixating on Watergate.
“In President Ford, the world saw the best of America and America found a man whose character and leadership would bring calm and healing to one of the most divisive moments in our nation’s history,” George W. Bush said.
Ford’s influence continues in Washington. Vice President Dick Cheney was his chief of staff. Donald Rumsfeld, who just left the Bush administration, was also Ford’s secretary of defense.
After Tuesday’s ceremony, Ford’s body was flown to Michigan for burial. Ford represented the Grand Rapids area in Congress from 1949 until 1973.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
