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Remembering Gerald Ford
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In the summer of 1973, fresh out of college, I took a job as an elevator operator in the Senate wing of the Capitol under the patronage of Sen. Sam J. Ervin Jr. (D-N.C.), chairman of the Senate Watergate committee. Also working that summer as an elevator operator under the patronage of Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (D-Mont.) -- in a display of bipartisanship unlikely today -- was Steve Ford, son of House Minority Leader Gerald Ford.
On several evenings that summer, Mr. Ford walked from the other side of the Capitol to meet Steve and to give him a ride home. The congressman often swapped small talk with us "elevator boys" -- the name we gave ourselves even though our ranks included a few young women -- while we waited for the evening shift to come on duty.
The next summer President Ford took the oath of office. On the few occasions I saw him thereafter, I knew that he was not only president of the United States but also a dad who made sure his son got a ride home from work.
GORDON M. THOMAS
Arlington
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Gerald Ford's presidency was several years before I was born, but I learned a great deal about his early life while researching a college term paper.
