This evening in my book club, we read An Ordinary Man: The Surprising Life and Historic Presidency of Gerald R. Ford by Richard Norton Smith. The title was apt.
To a man, we all felt President Gerald Ford (1913 - 2006) as portrayed in the book was an ordinary man, a decent man, a good man. Those traits are uncommon in U.S. Presidents. Those traits can also make for dull and boring reading. One book club member asked what did Ford actually do and accomplish in his early life. No one could answer the question with conviction.
I should quickly add that we have read less than half of the 818-page book thus far. Nonetheless, it seemed life happened to Gerald Ford before he became president. One book club member compared Ford to Forrest Gump in this regard. Harsh but this was the sentiment of my book club.
I fell asleep between five to ten times while reading the book.
Even on the volatile matter of race, Ford was a decent man but not a firebrand. The young Ford’s friend was “Burt Garel, the son of an African-American chauffeur and a frequent visitor to the Fords’” home. p. 43 Ford had a choice of three high schools to attend. He chose the most racially diverse of his three choices, South High which included working- and middle-class youngsters from African-American backgrounds. p. 46 An African-American teammate, Silas McGee, on the South High School Trojans recalled that Ford “was color blind…Gerald Ford was my brother.” pgs. 62-63 At the University of Michigan, Ford shared a dorm room with the sole black Black football player, Willis Ward. pgs. 61 - 62 Ward was Ford’s best friend on the team. When “a trash talking Georgia Tech linebacker..taunted Ford and his teammates by demanding, ‘Where’s your ni**er player?” His answer came in the form of a vicious double hit delivered by Ford and guard Bill Borgmann.” p. 63 The bigoted Yellow Jacket player was carried off the field on a stretcher. Id.
Further evidence of Ford’s decency on race would be his work with William T. Coleman, Jr. as a Warren Commission staffer and Secretary of Transportation in the Ford Administration. President Ford and Best Friend on Michigan football team Ward Willis
“All three of Ford’s sons attended T. C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia whose football team was celebrated in the 2000 film Remember the Titans, starring Denzel Washington. Williams resulted from the consolidation of three existing schools, each one largely segregated.”
In Ford’s own words, “I am a Ford. I am not a Lincoln.”
Conclusion: An Ordinary Man is about a decent man who became an accidental U.S. President. Perhaps, my book club is accustomed to sweeping, epic personalities like Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, and Richard Milhous Nixon. A simple man free of demons from Grand Rapids, Michigan lacks pizazz.
This is a reflection on us and our times, not the ordinary man President Gerald R. Ford.
Best Friends Gerald R. Ford & Willis Ward
Interesting…
I have learned much more than
I thought 💭 I knew about him!
Ford did always seem decent, but I never knew much about him. He sounds like he was well ahead of his time.