Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr.

Attended public schools; graduated, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1935; graduated from Yale University Law School, New Haven, Connecticut, 1941; admitted to the bar in 1941; served in the United States Navy 1942-1946; elected as a Republican to the 81st Congress; reelected to the twelve succeeding Congresses and served from 3 Jan 1949, until his resignation from the United States House of Representatives 6 Dec 1973, to become Vice President of the United States; minority leader (89th through 93rd Congresses); nominated by President Richard M. Nixon (12 Oct 1973) to fill the vacant vice-presidential post after the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, who pleaded no contest to charges of income tax evasion; confirmed by the Senate (27 Nov 1973); confirmed by the House of Representatives and sworn in (6 Dec 1973); first Vice President to be nominated by the President and confirmed by the Congress pursuant to the 25th amendment to the Constitution of the United States; sworn in as the 38th President of the United States, 9 Aug 1974, when President Nixon resigned, and served until 20 Jan 1977; granted a full pardon to Nixon (8 Sep 1974); ordered an airlift of anticommunist Vietnamese refugees in the final days of the Vietnam War in April 1975; sent the Marines to seize the American cargo ship Mayaguez seized by Cambodia (1975); survived two attempts of assassination; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1976.