AP News, September 1st, 2007
Gerald R. Ford left his stamp on the nation. Now it can travel on letters worldwide.
Simultaneous day-of-issue ceremonies were held Friday in the city where Ford grew up and near the community he later called home Friday to mark the release of a postage stamp honoring the nation's 38th president.
The 41-cent first-class stamp features a painting of Ford and memorializes his life of public service. He was 93 when he died Dec. 26 at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The Postal Service produced 80 million of the stamps, which went on sale Friday. Artist Michael J. Deas of New York City created it under the direction of stamp designer Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Md.
"We just feel like it's a wonderful stamp," said son Michael Ford, whose voice frequently cracked with emotion during the ceremony at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids. The late president's brother, Richard Ford, also was there.
Michael Ford said the Postal Service contacted his father several years ago about its plans to put his image on a stamp, "and it is something of which he was very proud."
Ex-presidents traditionally are remembered on stamps in the year following their deaths, while there is a five-year waiting period before other people can be honored.
Postmaster General John Potter joined the president's wife, Betty Ford, and their children, Jack Ford and Susan Ford Bales, for a dedication event at the McCallum Theater in Palm Desert, Calif., near Rancho Mirage.
Although she did not speak at the ceremony, it was the former first lady's first public appearance since her husband's death.
"It's tough, but she's doing very well," Bales told KCAL-TV. "A lot of people forget that she's 89 years old. She's doing very well for being married to the same man for a long, long time, and it's lonely."
Bales told a newspaper that the portrait of Ford "really shows dad's character."
"It's a strong painting, but it's a soft painting that shows his warmth and just really who he is as a person," she told The Desert Sun newspaper. "And that's the nice part."
Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. in Omaha, Neb. He moved to the Grand Rapids area as a baby and later changed his name in recognition of his mother's second husband.
Ford played on the University of Michigan's national championship football teams in 1932 and 1933 and later turned down offers to play professionally for the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers, in favor of going to law school.
He served in the Navy in World War II and in 1948 was elected to Congress, eventually rising to minority leader.
Ford, a Republican, was appointed vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 and the next year became president after the resignation of President Nixon.
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On the Net:
Postal Service: http://www.usps.com
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum: http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/
