Gerald Ford attended the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor but chose Grand Rapids, the city that raised him, for his museum and his grave, which makes the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum in front of you the only presidential library in the country built in a different state from the president's college. Gerald Ford is one of the most consequential and most underestimated figures in American political history. He grew up in Grand Rapids, played football at the University of Michigan, served in the Navy during World War Two, and then represented this congressional district for twenty-five years — one of the most respected members of the House before being appointed, not elected, to the vice presidency after Spiro Agnew's resignation, and then ascending to the presidency when Richard Nixon resigned in 1974.
His pardon of Nixon cost him the 1976 election but is now widely regarded as an act of political courage that helped heal a deeply fractured country. Ford and his wife Betty are buried in the museum's garden, on the bank of the Grand River. Go inside and stand before the replica of the Oval Office as it looked in 1974.