ABSTRACT

David Kennerly, the personal photographer for Gerald R. Ford, always felt like a member of the presidential family, trusted and welcomed to inner sanctums like few other staff members of any president. He had won a Pulitzer Prize for his photography during the Vietnam War, and later was assigned by Time magazine to cover Ford when he was a Republican member of the House of Representatives from Michigan. During a Ford ski vacation in Vail, Colorado, Kennerly had dinner with the then-vice president and his family at a Chinese restaurant. After the meal, Ford opened his fortune cookie, read the prediction, fell silent, and placed the tiny piece of paper on the table and covered it with his hand. Eight months later, in August 1974, Nixon resigned and Ford moved into the White House. Kennerly, then 27, was hired to be the chief White House photographer on August 9, Ford's first day as president.