President Gerald R. Ford

Tribute to President Gerald R. Ford

Monday's luncheon was a tribute to the 38th President of the United States: Our own Gerald R. Ford. It was held at T. Pepin's Hospitality Center.  It is a small convention hall that is a part of a large beer distributor facility in Tampa.

The honorary chairman was former Ambassador to Italy Peter Secchia and his wife Joan.  (Introduced by AG Bill Schuette)

I have never met Mr. Secchia or heard him speak before, but he was shall we say...entertaining!  He opened with this: "I asked Bill where is Thad McCotter?...Oh that's right, he is at home counting signatures"  You should have heard the ohhs and ahhs from that one.  As you might imagine the eyes at my table turned to me :)

For those who do not know the background of President Ford, he was a captain of the Michigan Football team.  Everyone one had a Michigan Jersey laying on their chair when we arrived.  All paid for by MRP Chairman Bobby Schostak :)

Ambassador Secchia is a Spartan and said he did not wear Green and White, just something "Rick Snyder Neutral".  He also said that U of M could have used Gerald Ford the last 4 years.  (I can't wait for that game this season...time to end this streak!)

Governor Snyder spoke next about his first Republican National Convention.  He was 17 when he got a letter to be a part of Gerald Ford's youth group.  He attended the convention in 1976 and even showed everyone his program, credentials and name tag from the convention.  In this picture he is holding the name tag :)

They showed a fantastic video titled "A Profile of Integrity: Remembering Gerald R. Ford"  A copy was provided to everyone when we left the luncheon.  I hope to "convert" the DVD and upload it to the blog in the next few days if possible.  It includes interviews with Ambassador Secchia, Donald Rumesfeld, Dick Cheney &  Brent Schocroft.  Very well done.

The keynote speech was given by former Michigan Governor John Engler.  Engler told the story of how in 1964 Gerald Ford gave the nominating speech for Governor George Romney.  Sitting in the audience that day was 17 year old Mitt Romney. 

He went on to tell how Ford vetoed 66 bills in less then 4 years.  He submitted his budget to Congress personally (we will never see a President do that again).  He was a man of character.  He was someone you could trust.  He never put himself before the country.  He was the right man at the right time in history.

The special guest was supposed to be Ford's son Steven Ford, but he had to cancel because of weather concerns in Tampa.  Too bad, it would have been nice to hear some personal stories about his father...