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Warm Memories of a Leader in Everyday Life
Joe Quattrone, 72, rehangs a photo of Ford with the president of Italy. Quattrone manages the Rayburn Building barbershop and cut Ford's hair from 1970, when he was House minority leader, until he became president in 1974.
(Photos By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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"My sense was they just didn't have time to do neighborhood things -- they were too busy." When he was present, Smith added, "we would talk about our kids. He was never the big shot, which was very nice. He didn't have any inflated opinions of his own importance, as so many politicians do."
James Cannon, a former Newsweek editor who served as Ford's domestic policy adviser, said that description was always apt -- sometimes to the president's detriment.
"He was not a charismatic man. He was a workhorse, not a show horse, and he was much better in person than on television," said Cannon, a Georgetown resident who wrote the 1994 book "Time and Chance: Gerald Ford's Appointment With History."
"The White House is the first stage of the world, and the president, whether it's Reagan or Clinton or Kennedy, [is a performer], and Ford was not a very good performer. He was a plain-spoken Midwesterner, and acting was not among his attributes," Cannon said.
Sometimes, attempts to jazz up the stolid Ford image backfired. Former White House photographer David Hume Kennerly recalled the time he enlisted Los Angeles comic Don Penny to coach the president on his speech delivery during the 1976 campaign. "It took a lot for him to be angry," Kennerly said.
But during a practice speech in the Cabinet Room, after Penny had interrupted the president several times, instructing him to speak his words as if he meant them, Ford blew up. He reached into a pocket, pulled out a Cross pen and lobbed it at the comedian, missing and chipping the wall above Penny's head.
"He always had such a calm about him; it was great to get a rise out of him," Penny said yesterday. "It was a pleasure to work with him. He was a wonderful man."
Even his political opponents agreed. For 17 years, Ford and U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell both represented Michigan in Congress -- Ford as a Republican, Dingell as a Democrat.
"Gerry Ford was a good, hard fighter, but he also knew how to come together on a set of common purposes," said Dingell, the longest-serving current member of Congress.
"From time to time, events happen that change the outlook, that cause people to reflect and perhaps change the way they function," Dingell said. "And frankly, Gerry Ford in his passing has reminded people that a White House and a Congress, even if they are opposing parties, can work together in the public interest of the country."
