ABSTRACT
Early Life Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., was born July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Nebraska, the son of Leslie and Dorothy King. When the boy was two, his parents were divorced and his mother presently married Gerald R. Ford, Sr., who adopted her son as his own. Jerry Ford grew up in the conservative environment of Grand Rapids, Michigan, in a warm family in which the emphasis was on integrity and hard work. These traits helped Ford, Sr., to maintain his paint manufacturing business through the Depression of the 1930's, which must have been a lesson for his sons. A good student in high school, Jerry was also an exceptional athlete both in high school and at the University of Michigan, where he earned a B.A. degree in 1935 with a B average. He then enrolled in the Yale Law School, also working fulltime at Yale as a football and boxing coach. He earned his law degree in 1941, also with a B average, despite his full-time work. By this time he was more than six feet tall, powerfully built, with ruggedly handsome features which allowed him to model sports clothing in Look magazine. As years passed, his full blond hair slowly receded from his forehead.
