Gerald Ford, in full Gerald Rudolph Ford, Jr., original name Leslie Lynch King, Jr., (born July 14, 1913, Omaha, Nebraska, U.S. died December 26, 2006, Rancho Mirage, California), 38th president of the United States (1974–77), who, as 40th vice president, had succeeded to the presidency on the resignation of President Richard Nixon, under the process decreed by the Twenty-fifth Amendment to the Constitution, and thereby became the country’s only chief executive who had not been elected either president or vice president. While Gerald Ford was still an infant, his parents were divorced, and his mother moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where