For Jimmy Carter: 'I’m looking forward to our reunion', by Steve Ford (written by President Gerard Ford) - 2025

9 January 2025, Washington National Cathedral, Washington DC, USA

Now, Dad was thrilled to agree. After that call, as you can imagine, both of them got off the phone, had a pretty good chuckle, considering which one of them would return in person to deliver that second eulogy. As you know, Dad died in 2006 and President Carter’s eulogy continues to bring comfort, smile, laughter, joy, pride to our family. And thus, on behalf of my dad, it’s an honor to share Dad’s eulogy to his old friend.

I can just see my dad getting his yellow legal pad out with his pen and writing this for his beloved friend. — Steve Ford

By fate of a brief season, Jimmy Carter and I were rivals. But for the many wonderful years that followed, friendship bonded us as no two presidents since John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. It is said that President Adams’ last words were “Thomas Jefferson still survives.” Now since Jimmy has a good decade on me, I’m hedging my bets by entrusting my remembrances of Jimmy to my son Steve.

According to a map, it’s a long way between Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Plains, Georgia. But distances have a way of vanishing when measured in values, rather than miles, and it was because of our shared values that Jimmy and I respected each other as adversaries, even before we cherished one another as dear friends.

Now this is not to say that Jimmy never got under my skin — but has there ever been a group of politicians that didn’t do that to one another? During our 1976 contest, Jimmy knew my political vulnerabilities, and he successfully pointed them out. Now I didn’t like it, but little could I know that the outcome of that 1976 election would bring about one of my deepest and most enduring friendships.

In the summer of 1981, the two of us found ourselves together again, this time aboard Air Force One, bound for the funeral of the great peacemaker Anwar Sadat. There’s an old line to the effect that two presidents in a room is one too many. Frankly, I wondered how awkward that long flight might be to Cairo — and it was a long flight, but the return trip was not nearly long enough. For it was somewhere over the Atlantic that Jimmy and I forged a friendship that transcends politics.

We immediately decided to exercise one of the privileges of a former president, forgetting that either one of us had ever said any harsh words about the other one in the heat of battle. Then we got on to much more enjoyable subjects, discussing our families, our faith, and sharing our experiences and discovering that there is, indeed, life after the White House.

We commiserated over the high cost of building presidential libraries — and the even more regrettable fact that most of that fundraising for these otherwise admirable institutions fell to us personally. On the spot, we agreed to participate in programs at each other’s library, beginning with a series of conferences on arms control. And if that wasn’t newsworthy enough, we told reporters on the plane that a lasting Middle East peace would require the United States to make tough decisions, like confronting the Palestinian issue directly, thereby building on the work to which President Sadat had literally given his life. It was the first time, but by no means the last time, that our unlikely partnership ruffled feathers in the Washington establishment.

Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford on Air Force One in 1981. Dirck Halstead / Getty Images

Now, honesty and truth-telling were synonymous with the name Jimmy Carter. Those traits were instilled in him by his loving parents, Lillian and Earl Carter, and the strength of his honesty was reinforced by his upbringing in the rural South, poised on the brink of social transformation. He displayed that honesty throughout his life as a naval officer, state legislator, governor, president and world leader.

For Jimmy Carter, honesty was not an aspirational goal; it was part of his very soul. Now I think Jimmy wrote more books than any former president. Once asked if he really enjoyed writing, he replied with that familiar twinkle in his eye: “It beats picking cotton.” But I think he enjoyed writing for another reason: As an author, he was under no pressure to tailor his opinions to some political constituency or potential contributor.

Now both of us had experienced the harsh reality that defeat at the polls can be painful. But we also came to know a more important consequence: Political defeat and writing can also be liberating, if it frees you to discuss topics that aren’t necessarily consistent with short-term political popularity.

Now Jimmy learned early on that it was not enough merely to bear witness in a pew on a Sunday morning. Inspired by his faith, he pursued brotherhood across boundaries of nationhood, across boundaries of tradition, across boundaries of caste. In America’s urban neighborhoods and in rural villages around the world, he reminded us that Christ had been a carpenter. And in Third World villages, he successfully campaigned — not for votes, but for the eradication of diseases that shamed the developed world as they ravaged the undeveloped one.

Now, of course, not all of Jimmy’s time was spent building houses, eradicating disease, brokering ceasefires, monitoring elections. While Jimmy is probably the only former president to conduct a weekly Bible class, I know for certain he is the only former president to perform a duet of “On the Road Again” with Willie Nelson. Georgia wasn’t just on Jimmy’s mind — it was in his blood. However far he traveled, he never forgot where he came home to or where, now, in the end, he would finally come home to.

Of the many things Jimmy and I had in common, the most important is this: We both married way above ourselves — way above. With Jimmy every step of the way was his first lady from Plains. In a life rich with blessings, none was greater for Jimmy than the love he shared with Rosalynn and the love the two of them shared with their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Like Jimmy, Rosalynn was — and is — a symbol of American compassion. Like no other first lady in our history, Rosalynn Carter is indeed a true citizen of the world. And she became a beloved friend to my wife, Betty, and me and to all the Ford family. While the Carter and Ford men were a decidedly mixed record when it came to lobbying Congress, Rosalynn and Betty were unbeatable in their advocacy for millions of people whom they brought out of the shadows of despair and shame.

Now is the time to say goodbye — our grief comforted with the joy and the thanksgiving of knowing this man, this beloved man, this very special man. He was given the gift of years, and the American people and the people of the world will be forever blessed by his decades of good works.

Jimmy Carter’s legacy of peace and compassion will remain unique as it is timeless. The entire Ford family, we extend our love to you, and we add our prayers to the prayers of tens of millions of people around the world. May God bless and watch over this good man. May he grant peace to the Carter family as they say goodbye to a man whose life was lived to the fullest, with a faith demonstrated in countless good works, with a mission richly fulfilled, and a soul rewarded with everlasting life.

As for myself, Jimmy, I’m looking forward to our reunion. We have much to catch up on.

Thank you, Mr. President. Welcome home, old friend.

Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford on Air Force One in 1981. Dirck Halstead / Getty Images

For Gerard Ford: 'He played in the middle of the line', by Tom Brokaw - 2007

2 January 2007, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Mrs. Ford, members of the Ford family, President and Mrs. Bush, Vice President and Mrs. Cheney, President and Mrs. Bush, President and Mrs. Carter, President and Mrs. Clinton, distinguished guests, my fellow Americans; it’s a great privilege and an honor for me to be here.

For the past week, we have been hearing the familiar lyrics of the hymns to the passing of a famous man, the hosannas to his decency, his honesty, his modesty and his steady-as-she-goes qualities. It’s what we’ve come to expect on these occasions.

But this time there was extra value, for in the case of Gerald Ford, these lyrics have the added virtue of being true.

Sometimes there are two versions to these hymns – one public and one private, separate and discordant. But in Gerald Ford, the man he was in public, he was also that man in private.

Gerald Ford brought to the political arena no demons, no hidden agenda, no hit list or acts of vengeance. He knew who he was and he didn’t require consultants or gurus to change him. Moreover, the country knew who he was and despite occasional differences, large and small, it never lost its affection for this man from Michigan, the football player, the lawyer and the veteran, the Congressman and suburban husband, the champion of Main Street values who brought all of those qualities to the White House.

Once there, he stayed true to form, never believing that he was suddenly wiser and infallible because he drank his morning coffee from a cup with a presidential seal.

He didn’t seek the office. And yet, as he told his friend, the late, great journalist Hugh Sidey, he was not frightened of the task before him.

We could identify with him – all of us – for so many reasons. Among them, we were all trapped in what passed for style in the 70’s with a wardrobe with lapels out to here, white belts, plaid jackets and trousers so patterned that they would give you a migraine. The rest of us have been able to destroy most of the evidence of our fashion meltdown, but presidents are not so lucky. Those David Kennerly photographs are reminders of his endearing qualities, but some of those jackets – I think that they’re eligible for a presidential pardon or at least a digital touch-up.

As a journalist, I was especially grateful for his appreciation of our role, even when we challenged his policies and taxed his patience with our constant presence and persistence. We could be adversaries but we were never his enemy, and that was a welcome change in status from his predecessor’s time.

To be a member of the Gerald Ford White House press corps brought other benefits as well as we documented a nation and a world in transition, in turmoil. We accompanied him to audiences with the notorious and the merely powerful. We saw Tito, Franco, Sadat, Marcos, Suharto, the shah of Iran, the emperor of Japan, China with Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping all at once, what was then the Soviet Union and Vladivostock with Leonid Brezhnev, and Helsinki at one of the most remarkable gatherings of leaders in the 20th century.

There were other advantages to being a member of his press corps that we didn’t advertise quite as widely. We went to Vail at Christmas and Palm Springs at Easter time with our families. Now cynics might argue that contributed to our affection for him. That is not a premise that I wish to challenge.

One of our colleagues, Jim Naughton of The New York Times, personified the spirit that existed in the relationship. He bought from a San Diego radio station promoter a large mock chicken head that had attracted the president’s attention at a G.O.P. rally. And then, giddy from 20-hour days and an endless repetition of the same campaign speech, Naughton decided to wear that chicken head to a Ford news conference in Oregon with the enthusiastic encouragement of the president and his chief of staff, Dick Cheney.

In the next news cycle, the chicken head was a bigger story than the president. And no one was more pleased than the man that we honor here today in this august ceremony.

When the president called me last year and asked me if I would participate in these services, I think he wanted to be sure that the White House press corps was represented: the writers, correspondents and producers, the cameramen, photographers, the technicians and the chicken.

He also brought something else to the White House, of course. He brought the humanity that comes with a family that seemed to be living right next door. He was every parent when he said my children have spoken for themselves since they were old enough to speak – and not always with my approval. I expect that to continue in the future.

And was there a more supportive husband in America than when his beloved Carol began to speak out on issues that were not politically correct at the time. Together, they put on the front pages and in the leads of the evening newscasts the issues that had been underplayed in America for far too long.

My colleague Bob Schieffer called him the nicest man he ever met in politics. To that I would only add the most underestimated.

In many ways I believe football was a metaphor for his life in politics and after. He played in the middle of the line. He was a center, a position that seldom receives much praise. But he had his hands on the ball for every play and no play could start without him. And when the game was over and others received the credit, he didn’t whine or whimper.

But then he came from a generation accustomed to difficult missions, shaped by the sacrifices and the depravations of the Great Depression, a generation that gave up its innocence and youth to then win a great war and save the world. And when that generation came home from war, they were mature beyond their years and eager to make the world they had saved a better place. They re-enlisted as citizens and set out to serve their country in new ways, with political differences but always with the common goal of doing what’s best for the nation and all the people.

When he entered the Oval Office, by fate not by design, Citizen Ford knew that he was not perfect, just as he knew he was not perfect when he left. But what president ever was?

But he was prepared because he had served his country every day of his adult life and he left the Oval Office a much better place. The personal rewards of his citizenship and his presidency were far richer than he had anticipated in every sense of the phrase.

But the greatest rewards of Jerry Ford’s time were reserved for his fellow Americans and the nation he loved.

Farewell, Mr. President. Thank you, Citizen Ford.