Gerald R. Ford --- A fond remembrance

by

Gerald Plessner

December 27, 2006 - I had the honor of meeting former president Gerald R. Ford on five occasions during my career as a fund raising consultant. Please allow me to share some fond remembrances.

We honored the former president by creating the President's Invitational Golf Tournament at Lakeside Country Club in Los Angeles. Bob Hope hosted the event which benefitted the Children's Bureau of Los Angeles, a wonderful foster care agency. Mr. Ford attended every year, playing in the first foursome with Bob Hope.

We also organized a dinner in honor of the former president and Mrs. Ford at the Indian Wells Country Club in Rancho Mirage for a cause which escapes me, and a dinner honoring Mr. Ford to benefit Multiple Sclerosis research at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas.

A man like Gerald Ford must have met hundreds of thousands of strangers over his career. I would never expect him to remember me. Each time we met I introduced myself and, surprisingly, on the third and fourth times, he smiled when he saw me and seemed to know my face, although he probably wouldn't remember my name. I was quite pleased.

Gerald R. Ford was the most unassuming, self-confident and accommodating public figure I had ever seen. Though stories of his humility, good nature, interest in others and public service are legendary, based upon my experience, they are all true.

There are two events which I most fondly remember:

At the initial golf tournament, Mr. Ford arrived at the first tee in a golf cart driven by a Secret Service agent. Bob Hope was there and they greeted each other warmly while a second agent stood at the tee's edge.

In most charity tournaments, the play begins with a Shotgun Start. Fifteen minutes before starting time all the players get into their carts and drive out to preassigned tees. At the assigned time, a tradition presumably begun in Scotland has it that the starter "fires a shotgun" into the air and all the players all over the course start playing golf. That way they all finish the game at the same time and can repair to the Men's lounge where they drink and brag and exaggerate their success on the course.

But in America everyone understands that the players check their watches and at the assigned time each foursome tees off.

Everyone except the assistant starter, who decided on his own to bring out a small cannon, put a firecracker in it and light the fuse!

One Secret Service agent is pushing Gerald Ford's head down and pulling out his weapon. The other agent, with gun drawn moves in front of the former president. Two back-up agents run in from the parking lot. Bob Hope is backing away slowly and Jerry Plessner is running around with his hands up shouting, "It was the starter! It was the starter!"

Gerald Ford says, "It's O.K. I'm alright. No problem. Bob you go first." And he just let it pass. I guess.

At the dinner at Rancho Mirage, the reception was in full swing when the advance Secret Service agent told me that Mr. And Mrs. Ford were almost in the driveway. He asked if someone was going to meet them at the curb.

I found the dinner chairman and asked him if he would do the honors and he answered, "Hell, he's only Jerry Ford! He's a neighbor and we see them every other night at one affair or another. You go get them."

So I scurried out to the curb just in time to greet our guests of honor and escorted them into the reception. Of course they were cordial and we shared nothing of consequence. It was the first and only time I met Mrs. Ford, a lovely woman.

I guess by that time Jerry Ford was just another American --- but a great one --- just as he will always be in the memories of those who honor his service, his leadership, his dedication to America and what it stands for, his good nature and his humility.

Thank you, Mr. President.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gerald Plessner is a Southern California businessman who writes regularly on issues of politics and culture. He would be pleased to hear from you and may be contacted at gerald@geraldplessner.com.