For the second time since taking office, President Bush eulogized a predecessor on Tuesday, praising former President Gerald R. Ford as “one of America’s most beloved leaders.”
“He was elevated to the presidency,” Bush told mourners at the National Cathedral, “because America needed him, not because he needed the office.”
The speech came less than two and a half years after Bush eulogized former President Reagan in the same gothic church in Washington. Both funerals were also attended by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
Although Ford was less conservative than Bush, the current president hailed him as a “healer” for pardoning former President Nixon in the wake of Watergate. Bush echoed the words of Vice President Dick Cheney, who on Saturday said the pardon led to Ford’s defeat at the hands of Carter in 1976.
“That decision probably cost him the presidential election,” Bush said Tuesday.
The seven-minute eulogy was interrupted by laughter when Bush recalled that Ford married his wife, Betty, less than three weeks before his first election to Congress.
“His idea of a honeymoon was driving to Ann Arbor with his bride so they could attend a brunch before the Michigan-Northwestern game the next day,” Bush said.
The remark prompted knowing smiles from Betty and her children, some of whom could be seen weeping at other points in the funeral.
“President Ford’s time in office was brief, but history will long remember the courage and common sense that helped restore trust in the workings of our democracy,” Bush said. “Goodbye to a great man.”
