Washington will lay its last honors at the feet of Gerald Ford today before sending the former president’s body to Michigan for burial.
President Bush is scheduled to deliver Ford’s eulogy today at the National Cathedral in upper Northwest. Ford died the day after Christmas. He was 93.
The former president is the only president never to have won a national election. His flag-draped casket, guarded by a member of each branch of the military, has spent the last three days lying in state at the U.S. Capitol, where Ford spent most of his years of public service.
On Monday, the last day for viewing, Ford’s son, Michael, took his place in line and thanked passersby for paying their respects. Ford’s family had been greeting visitors since the president’s casket was open to the public on Sunday.
Donald Amos, a lawyer for the Environmental Protection Agency, was one of dozens to brave a soupy rain to pass through the Capitol. He said he met Ford in 1977 while working on an EPA case and found the former president to be genial and down-to-earth.
Though he has voted mostly for Democrats, Amos said he was impressed with Ford’s integrity.
Amos said he was outraged when he learned that Ford had pardoned disgraced President Richard Nixon. “But in the long run, I don’t think it’s hurt anything,” Amos said.
Roberto Bilante, 79, of Guam, and his wife, Virgilia, passed through the line with their son, Glen, of the District of Columbia. He said that he chiefly remembers Ford from the president’s infamous public pratfalls. But he said he was moved by the display of the president’s casket.
“Very impressive,” Bilante said.
Jerry Paull, 71, of Arlington, is a retired lieutenant colonel from the Marine Corps who served in the Vietnam War. He said Ford “did a great service to the country” by facing the need to end the Vietnam War, to pardon Nixon and to bomb Cambodia after the Khmer Rouge seized the USS Mayaguez.
“I feel that we owe him a debt,” Paull said.
