Gerald Ford

'There were many times in his long life when Gerald Ford felt he had reached the top of the tree.' The orbituary in The Economist says. And it continues, 'Mr Ford, after 13 terms as a congressman, had risen to become a popular minority leader in the House, with no ambitions but to be speaker one day if control swung back to the Republicans. Still, as he told Betty [Warren, his wife], the vice-presidency would make a “nice conclusion” to his career.' But '[I]t is not the conclusion.' He became the President of the United States on 9th August 1974 when Richard Nixon stepped down in the wake of the Watergate scandal.

Mr. Ford is described as disliking fuss and he worked like hell. 'As he made his inaugural speech in the East Room of the White House—“just a little straight talk among friends”—the very flatness of his Michigan vowels, his stumbles over words, his mistiness whenever he talked about prayers, seemed like a gale of fresh air.'

In fact, I say, the writing of the orbituary is also like a gale of fresh air.