 I'd like to welcome everybody. For those of you who are just joining us, some of you were with us for an earlier set of two very interesting panels. For those of you who are just joining us, let me introduce myself. I'm Susan Collins, the Joan and Sanford Wildein of the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and I'm very pleased to welcome all of you here on behalf of the entire Ford School community. And we are here today, as you know, to celebrate the legacy that President Ford has left for the school that bears his name. Before we get started, there are a few people who have joined us here today that I would just like to identify and to greet personally. Mary Sue Coleman, the President of the University of Michigan, is here with us, and we're thrilled to welcome you at Ford School. We're also very pleased to be able to welcome Mike Ford, the eldest son of President Ford and Betty Ford. Welcome. He's here representing the family today. In the room are current as well as former members of the Ford School committee. In particular, let me highlight Alan Sinai, Paul O'Neill, and Marty Allen, all of whom will be speaking on the program this afternoon. It's great to have here with us Elaine Didier, who is the director of the Gerald R. Ford Library and Museum, and is co-sponsoring this event, and it's a great pleasure. I know that there was a program at the library this morning, and that a number of people from that program have also joined us. Also we're very happy that Regent Catherine White has been able to join us as well this afternoon. Finally, as you may have noticed, we are taping this event, and we'll be sending a DVD, a copy to Mrs. Betty Ford, so that she can share with us what we are going to be experiencing together this afternoon. I would like to extend both my own personal, but also the Ford School community's greetings personally to her as well. I'd like to begin my remarks this afternoon with a quote from a speech that President Ford prepared for the dedication of this building, Wild Hall, not quite a year ago in October of 2006. In his remarks, he said that there is no greater honor than to have a school bear your name. Now I very much regret that I never had the opportunity to meet President Ford, but one can't be dedicated to public policy education, public policy research without being very well aware of really the myriad contributions that live on and that provide us with both guidance and inspiration. President Ford, in many ways, really exemplified an approach to public policy that balances four critical dimensions. I would first highlight the importance of the insights that are gained from analytical rigor. Yes, facts and ideas both matter, and they matter in many ways. And a heartfelt understanding of the needs of people, and a lot of that understanding comes from a genuine ability to listen. A third is a real commitment to public service and volunteerism. And fourth, but certainly not last, the political courage to follow through on the policy implications that one gains from those understandings and those insights. Those four dimensions, I would say, precisely embody core of the fundamental mission here at the Ford School. And that's true in terms of how our faculty undertake their research that is aimed at understanding real world challenges, improving public policy dialogue, public policy design, and implementation. And it's certainly true in terms of what and how we teach our students, in terms of providing them with a toolkit to collect, analyze, evaluate data of all different types, to see creative solutions that incorporate diverse perspectives, and to draw from that toolkit and from their passions for public service to maintain that political courage to follow through on what those implications of their insights and understandings have been. To quote Rebecca Blank, who is the Dean of the Ford School from 1999 until just a couple of months ago, 2007, she said that when we say we are the Ford School, it instantly identifies us as a school of public policy located at the University of Michigan, and our name links us to a man whose record of integrity and public service is a model for us all. Gerald R. Ford was a friend of this school in very many ways, and we deeply mourn his passing. He leaves behind much more than his name. And so with all due respect, it seems to me that President Ford may have gotten it backwards. And instead, what I would like to conclude is that there's no greater honor for a school, especially a public policy school, than to bear the name of Gerald R. Ford. And now I'd like to welcome to the podium President of the University of Michigan, Mary Sue Coleman. Thank you, Dean Collins, and welcome to all of you. This is an important afternoon made more special by your presence here with us. We want to welcome again Michael Ford back to the campus and thank him for his service to the Ford School. Mike, the Ford family is very much a part of the Michigan family, and we are so pleased that you can be with us today to help honor your father. I spoke with your mother this afternoon and told her about what a glorious day it is in Ann Arbor. She sounded terrific. And please extend our warmest wishes to her, to your sister, and your brothers. As we all know, President Ford loved the University of Michigan. He loved that he was a graduate. He loved that he played at Michigan Stadium, and he genuinely loved interacting with students and faculty. He also loved to tell the tale of his days as a struggling student with little money in his pocket and a campus job that had him cleaning tables in the nurses' cafeteria at Old Main Hospital. My most alumni would not reflect kindly on carrying dirty dishes and half empty glasses, but President Ford would point out the fringe benefit of the job, the opportunity to collect phone numbers from nursing students. Those he said always came in handy. If Jerry Ford's work-study job came with a few perks, could the University of Michigan have imagined the benefits it would enjoy in return for having Gerald Ford as a student and an alumnus? Regardless of his position in life, this graduate of the class of 35 never relinquished his U of M ties. He always wanted Michigan to be a better university than the one he attended. For his classmates of the 1930s, Jerry Ford was the good-looking center of the football team. He was the MVP who would be drafted by the pros but instead head to law school. His devotion to the football program was legendary. From attending a game the day after marrying Betty, she was very understanding. To meeting with players and coaches to provide a few inspiring words before a game. As a respected congressman, he responded in the positive when asked to make the University of Michigan the archive for his papers. It was a decision that would foreshadow the establishment of a much more critical repository on our north campus. For Michigan students fortunate enough to study here in the late 1970s, Gerald Ford was not only a former president, he was their professor offering insightful lectures on the art and science of politics. He also played ambassador and host, attracting such public figures as Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft to our campus to enlighten our community. He was an advocate of opening doors to higher education, knowing what happens when the doors are blocked because of a person's skin color or ethnic heritage or family income. As a student he witnessed discrimination with an African-American teammate and later pledged to correct what he called the cultural and social impoverishment that afflicted my generation. Most importantly, Gerald Ford was a philanthropist and one of the highest magnitude. Not because of the checks he wrote, although there were many and they were generous in supporting our students. Not because of the leadership role he played in our capital campaigns, recruiting volunteers and encouraging them to give and give again. And not because of the generosity he showed by donating his papers and locating his splendid presidential library on our campus for the use of students and scholars alike. Gerald Ford was a magnanimous stoner because he made the most personal gift to the university. He gave us his name. He honored Michigan by allowing the university to honor him to merge his character with a place he so dearly loved, that he would allow his name to be forever linked to our School of Public Policy, demonstrates the absolute faith he had in Michigan to provide an academic program rich in scholarship and integrity. During one of his many visits to campus, President Ford remarked, the university has played a very important part in whatever success I have achieved. It will do precisely the same thing for the young people who are on the campus at this time. This is how we pay tribute to President Ford. From one generation of students to the next. By offering the education and environment that shapes tomorrow's leaders, we honor a past president who was always, always focused on the university's future. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mary Sue. Next we're here from four people, each of whom had a very different connection with President Ford. And I'll introduce them very briefly and then ask them to come up in turn. First, Paul O'Neill, who served as Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Ford Administration. Second, Marty Allen, the Chairman Emeritus of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. Third, Bill Martin, the Director of the University of Michigan Department of Athletics. And fourth, Yuchenna Alexander, a 2005 graduate of the Ford School and a current member of our alumni board. Thank you, Dean Collins. My connection with President Ford was more than as his deputy budget director. Some of you understand how the federal budget process works, but some of you may not have a close connection. I need to tell you a little bit about that. In 1921, we decided as a country that we would start having a presidential budget. Before that, the president got a collection of stuff from the departments and agencies of government and sent them to the Congress. But we began developing the idea of a presidential budget that had some integrity and interconnections and relevance, one part to another. In 1939, as a consequence of the recommendation from the Hoover Institution, we refined that process even more. And after the Second World War, President Ford was elected to the Congress and was appointed to the Appropriations Committee. And he became a profound student of the government fist, both how we raise revenue and how we allocate resources from the people in our society that is the ultimate expression of our priorities and what it is we care about as a people. And he developed an unbelievable depth of understanding of everything that was going on in the federal government so that when he became president, we were entering the usual annual budget cycle that takes place from after Labor Day until about Christmas when it's all wrapped up and then the president, by tradition, sends his budget message to the Congress about the same time as a state-of-the-union message. So when President Ford became president, we were a month away from going into this intense process. Now, I have to tell you a little bit about different presidents, many of them I have personally known, but I became a student of all of this on the 10 years that I served in the Bureau of the Budget and the Office of Management and Budget. And I found different presidents have very different approaches to how to think about these questions of how we raise money and how we allocate money for public purposes. And there was one president, before president, Ford, namely Harry Truman, who believed that the budget should represent the president's careful thought and analysis of what we should do as a nation. And so during President Truman's time, after the budget was all wrapped up and sent to the government printing office, he would hold a press conference and he personally would stand there and answer questions about any detail of the federal budget. And he didn't need anyone to help him do it because he knew every piece of it. It was truly a remarkable thing for a president to be able to do this. Other presidents took different approaches. Some of them only wanted to deal with written papers. They didn't want to see the budget director much. Some of them would use the Christmas Vacation. Lyndon Johnson was famous for doing this for going to the ranch in Texas at Christmas time and the budget director would go down and talk with Lyndon for a few hours with stacks of books and the president would decide the things that he really cared about personally. The rest of it he left to the office, to the Bureau of the Budget people. President Ford was in the tradition of Harry Truman. So, and I must tell you, it was joyful to work with him because he liked it so much. You know, so that for maybe four or five hours a day for October and November, those of us who were in this process would either sit around the cabinet table with him and go through these piles of books or sit around his desk in the Oval Office and go through every specific program that we in the federal government were proposing to finance or to stop financing and look at every detail of how we raised money. And it was unbelievable. What I have in my mind are, you know, these visions of President Ford sitting with his feet up on his desk, smoking his pipe and, you know, it tells you something about the time. The rest of us were all puffing cigarettes like they were going out of style. And the President often had his hand on Liberty's head, which I think is the first of the German shepherds was Liberty, and it was kind of fun. You knew you were an insider when the dog sniffed you, when you came in the room and sometimes you had to push Liberty away, but Liberty was a part of our environment as we were doing this process. So we went through the process in 1974, which was a really hard time because there were so many other heavy problems. The Nixon pardon was 30 days after the President took office, you know, Vietnam was coming apart just to remind you of the environment. So we got that off. And in 1975, I began saying to him late in the fall, you know what, you ought to, you're like Harry Truman, you should be the first President since Harry Truman to do your own briefing. And so this is an idea that caught on. And so I wanted to give you this image now. This is the largest auditorium in the State Department. And the President has the budget, which is like this. And he's standing at the podium. And down this huge stage in the State Department auditorium are all of the cabinet secretaries and those of us who were involved in helping with the budget preparation. And out there in the audience are 350 carnivores from the media. And President Ford got up and made some introductory remarks and then opened this meeting. Anything and everything is fair game. And I think a lot of the people in the media thought he was going to call on people, you know, you answer this. He answered every question except one. You know, this for me, this was really personal. Somebody asked him a question about Medicare. And I knew because we worked on this together, he knew the answer. But rather than giving the answer, he said, you know, a really great expert about this subject is Paul O'Neill. You know, and a lot of people in the media said, who is that? But, you know, it was his way of kind of sharing the limelight in a way he didn't need to do. And I tell you all that because it's a character I found in this person. You know, he wanted the cabinet there so that they could be recognized for the responsibilities they had. He wanted to call on me. He didn't have to. It was his way of saying thank you. You know, and it's a quality. I have to tell you, I have not seen in a lot of famous people. One of his charming things is he didn't know he was famous. You know, he actually knew he was famous, but he didn't use it to lord over people. You know, again, I say being his deputy director of the budget was a lot more for me than, you know, just doing the job. And I think the feelings were reciprocal. You know, he would call my house on Christmas Eve to thank me for the work that I did for him. He didn't have to do that. Thank you. President Coleman, Dean Collins. I wish that Paul had told me about his knowledge of appropriations and budgets before I became chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. Because one of the things that I learned very rapidly was once we would mail out the financial reports, it was within 24 hours of receipt that he was on the phone to me asking me questions, that quite frankly, with my lack of accounting understanding, I wasn't able to answer. So from that point on, John Bab, who was a graduate of this great university and was our treasurer, I'd get him prepared and do exactly what he did to you. I'd say, Mr. President, I could answer that question, but John Bab knows an awful lot more about it. And he will call you and answer the question. The other thing I'd just like to follow before I make my remarks is he didn't know he was famous. And he quite often, because I was so much involved with so many of the events that he participated in over the time that I was head of the foundation, he would make a comment where he would go into a room and see all these people. And he'd say to me, what's this fuss all about? And he said that so many times to me. And I said, there's two things you have to know. Number one, you're the former President of the United States, you're the 38th President of the United States, and people do love you. And he kind of smiled then. So what am I going to say after all these years? Well, in 1981, in fact, it was September of 1981, we dedicated the Gerald R. Ford Museum, Presidential Museum. And that same day, we created a foundation. I was just flattered and honored at that time to ever be asked to be a trustee. And that, to me, was the epitome in a way of my public life to have a former president ask me to be a trustee. But rather than tell you all about the mechanics and the backgrounds of the foundation, I'm going to shift gears and tell you about telephone conversations that I had with him that have never been made public. It started in 1985. I received a call from him. And he said, Marty, I have a favorite ask of you. And he said, I would like you to be the chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation. And I was stunned not only because I didn't think I was deserving, but I had to remind him of something. I said, Mr. President, you know I'm replacing Bob Griffin, the former senator, a great University of Michigan graduate. And my undergraduate degree is from University of Notre Dame. And my master's degree is from Michigan State University. Have you made a mistake? And like this, he said to me, I thought about that. And he said, I realized that you got smarter in your life. You married Sue, a University of Michigan graduate. Well, those conversations went on. In fact, the last conversation I had with him and from that span of that conversation to the fall of 2006, my last long conversation, he still had a wit that I want to share with you in one specific subject. But the last conversation, he still had that wit. He was so proud that they were going to name a ship after him. He was just so proud. He's proud of his Navy career. Maybe more in some ways, Mike, about that than his presidency. He was very proud of his military record. So I call him one day, and he liked to pull my chain. I think it was because of my University of Notre Dame background. I call him up, and I said, you know, this is just a tremendous honor, Mr. President. But you know, I was a Lieutenant Commander, too. And I retired as a Lieutenant Commander like you did. And he quickly said, and tell me about your combat, Mr. Commander Allen. Of course, my combat was all in Virginia Beach as a feast time officer, where he was a commander in the Monterey. But he said something great at the end of that. He said, would you like to come aboard my ship, Mr. Commander? And I said, yes, sir. And he said, welcome aboard. That was the last conversation I had with him. And the ship will be launched in 2013. It'll be delivered to the Navy in 2015. God willing, I'll be there. But let me take you back in between, just one subject. It started out innocently. The Monday before the Notre Dame Michigan football games, he would call me. And he would say, and maybe you better shut your ears on this, Bill. I don't know what the statute of limitations runs out on the NCAA. But I do know that he was talking to some of your coaches when he made this call. And he said, I think we should make a little wager in the game. I said, well, I think that's respectful. And I let him do the bidding. And he just said, well, let's just do it even. I said, that's fine. It didn't make any difference to his favor. And we'd bet $5. And this went on. And then after a while, he said, well, or I think I may have said to him. I said, you know, to be very fair about this, we should really use the point spread a little bit. So he said, well, how are we going to determine which point spread to use? So this one telephone call turned into a four day negotiation process. To the point your mother, Mike, thought that we were betting an awful lot of money. She didn't know it was $5. And she couldn't understand what this is all about. And this went on for every year. Now, I was going to total it up today just to figure out how much money we parted with during the course. But what happened in the last two games with Notre Dame, I decided I'd have better things to do than that. But I want to tell you about Monday before the last Notre Dame game. I called. I missed his call. So I called his wife. And we laughed. We said, can you imagine Bo and President Ford up there in heaven, and they're oh, and two, and they're getting their butts kicked? Can you imagine the language that's being used up there that's never been heard in heaven before? And she laughed and then reconfirmed the fact. She said, you know, I never could figure out you too, the negotiations. She said, but it was a great thrill for him. And that could be the end of the story. But the end of the story is the next day. I got a call from her senior staff member and said, Betty would like to place a bet with you. And I accepted whatever term she wanted. Didn't make any difference based on what the score was. So I wrote her a note with the $5. And I said, you know, I don't know if this is fair or not. He wasn't very fair. He was a slow pay, by the way. And I said, I don't know really whether this is fair. I think there's been some heavenly intervention. In fact, though, I used to try and when I would lose the $5, I tried to connive my way out of paying. First of all, I told him one time that instead of sending you the $5, I'll put it in the collection basket at church on Sunday. Send me the money. That was the answer I got. So then I tried once and I said, you know, you're using a government telephone. I'm using a government telephone. And we're making wages over the telephone. And I don't want to be the cause of you being on the front page of the Washington Post. The response was, send me the money. And I wish I had thought about the NCAA bill, because I wondered if I had ever seen it. I know what the answer would have been, but I'd say, you know, we're probably violating the NCAA rules, and you certainly don't want to do any university. But anyway, a tradition continues with your mother. And it meant so much to me. To have her call and make the bet. Thank you. Wonderful, Marty. Great listening to that. And President Coleman, Sue, Regent White, and everybody else here, I'm really pleased to participate today. And I'm just curious, how many of you saw the interview on 60 Minutes with Alan Greenspan? How do you see that? Remember during that little session where he talked about his experiences with the other presidents that he'd worked with? Remember what he said about President Ford? He said he was as close to normal as you get in a president. I just love that. Close to normal as you get in a president. What's that say about the rest of them? Holy smokes. Well, for the last seven years, I've had the honor and privilege of meeting with President Ford, actually in my office a couple of times, talking to him numerous times on the phone from his home. And I want to share a couple of those recollections that I have with President Ford. And as Alan Greenspan said, he was just a normal person. He was just another one of the guys, like all the alums that I talked to about Michigan athletics. I mean, no difference whatsoever. He told me, Bill, I'm speaking to you from my den. And I want you to know in my den, I have a lock on the inside door. I have a switch so I can turn the phone off so I can watch Michigan football, totally uninterrupted. You know, I found that interesting. Marty mentioned Bo. One day I'm talking to Bo. And I said, Bo, we move forward with this stadium project. And if we have room for a former coach's box for you, how many seats would you like in it? And he gets that little impish smile on his face and he holds up one finger. And speaking about his chronic betting habits, he told me that his secretary was a graduate of the University of Iowa. Is that right, Mike? And that he would bet her on the Michigan-Iowa game a dollar, not $5 like you guys. And that dollar would go back and forth every year on that game. You know, I hate to say this, but our women's softball team is going down to South Bend this afternoon. And she was debating whether she was going to play the football team or the softball team down there. Sorry, that hurts a little bit. But you brought up Notre Dame. I wasn't going to go there. Payback's our heck, aren't they? You sound a lot like him. Yeah, there you go. So President Ford visits me a few years ago, sits down in my office. And he's there with Coach Carr and me. And we're just talking about sports and football. And one of our former retired members of our staff, Don Lund, who played football a few years after President Ford, comes in and sits down. And instead of referring to him as President Ford, he called him, hey, flipping back, how you doing? Flip him back was his nickname on the team because he was the center. And he flipped the ball back. And that's, did you know that, Marty? All right. We're educating you here up in Ann Arbor. So here's the situation. In all seriousness, President Ford is one of our chief recruiting aides to this day. I entertain and host a lot of young high school men and women who come sit down in my office to ask me questions about athletics and academics at Michigan. Many times their parents are with them. And usually when they sit down, I make certain they sit in one particular chair. In some place in the discussion, I say, you know, President Ford sat in that chair. And they're looking at their parents a little bit. Most of them really know who he was. I'm really pleased to see that. Really. But in the course of the discussion, and I got to tell you all the parents' ears perk up when they know their kid is sitting in a chair that President Ford sat in. I take out and I read a letter to them. I want to read this letter to you. Dear Mr. Kipke, Mr. Kipke was President Ford's coach here at Michigan. This letter comes from 2163 Lake Drive in Grand Rapids. It's dated June 8, 1931. It is in his wonderful penmanship, which is beautiful and easy to read, not like mine and most of the kids today. I want to thank you and Mrs. Kipke for entertaining me so wonderfully during my visit to Ann Arbor. I had a marvelous time and fully enjoyed every minute of the stay. And if there is any way in which I can repay you, I certainly would. The more I see of Ann Arbor, the university and the fellows who go there, the more I desire to attend school at Michigan. I've always wanted to be a student at the university since I was able to read about the prowess of their athletic teams, and now it is almost a certainty that it will come to pass. Danny Rose is getting me a job for my board, so that will help the expense account to some extent. And with the money earned this summer, I can get by the first year. Again, I wish to thank you and Mrs. Kipke for being such a fine host while I was in Ann Arbor, sincerely yours, Gerald Ford. Wonderful letter. I always end up giving a copy of this letter then to that young student athlete that they can take with them. And it has an immediate impact. And I don't know what you can do at Notre Dame, but we've got a president still working for us to this day on our behalf and recruiting. And usually in Michigan athletics, there's a tradition that you end your remarks with go blue, but in honor of Marty, I think I'll just end mine with send me the money. Thank you. Good afternoon. I was fortunate enough to be a student here in 2003 when President Ford came to visit with the students and the faculty here at the Ford School. We gathered in the library at Lorch Hall, our previous quarters, not nearly as nice as these, and had the opportunity to chat informally and ask questions. Now, I was a second year student at the time and this wasn't an official course, so I didn't really take copious notes, but there were some parts of our dialogue with President Ford that still stand out in my memory. One question which was asked by a friend of mine had to do with the president's experience with the judicial employment process. And when he answered in the context of his answer, he listed the branches of government after a little effort. He started out with the executive and the judicial, but it took him a little while before he could recall that missing branch. But he handled it all in stride. Ah, the legislative, my friends in Congress would be really upset with me if I forgot that one. I thought it was great that I got to share this inside joke with the president and it led to an informal, uncomfortable conversation. The other question that stayed with me and I wish I could remember whose question it was so I could attribute them properly was about the environment on Capitol Hill now compared to what it was like when he was a member of Congress. The president replied by saying that there was much more civility and collegiality on the Hill when he was there, that two congressmen from opposite sides of the aisle could argue and disagree vehemently on the House floor and then go out for a drink afterwards. That kind of environment lent itself to positive professional relationships and was much more conducive to collaborative work, he thought. This was in sharp contrast to the Capitol Hill of today. And this really stayed with me over the years. At the Ford School, we take classes in the political environment of policymaking. We learn how a bill becomes a law. We learn economic theory and how to apply it to our policy fields of interest. Eventually, we graduate and we take these newly sharpened skills to our jobs in the real world. Where we quickly learn that all of these theories are nothing without the basics, dedication, communication, compromise, and above all civility. Kindness can gain you access, whereas cruelty can erect a brick wall between you and a colleague. This may seem like a kindergarten, schoolyard lesson, yet it's one that's not practiced enough. Maybe people have forgotten. Maybe we need a refresher course or a presidential intervention every now and then when the world wears us down. But here's the reason why I think that this is more than just a schoolyard lesson. President Ford was a public servant during a time of great conflict. Many of us here are public servants as well in federal, state, and local governments, as educators or in other service occupations, also during a time of conflict. As such, our first and foremost concern has to be fulfilling our mission to serve our communities. In such times, avenues for collaboration and simple civility are ideal environments to create and seek out. This also means that other interests, whether self-serving or for the benefit of groups other than our constituents, in theory should be secondary at best. The type of name calling or divisive behavior that often happens in the media or takes place on the front pages of the papers today is hardly constructive. It puts too much emphasis on individuals and not enough on the public that those individuals are working for and creates walls that are difficult to tear down. And I think that was the gist of the lesson that President Ford wanted to teach with the answer to that question. I'm proud to say that I have joined the ranks of the public servant. I work for a federal agency in a budget office that is in regular communication with Congress and other parts of the executive branch. We're led by a political appointee and are under sometimes harsh political scrutiny, but as government workers, we're a little shielded from some of the infighting that is frequently featured in the news. A little, but not a lot. But even in my day-to-day job, what is still clear is the importance of recognizing mission as being more important than image and then conducting business accordingly. Imagine if that were the norm as much as President Ford wished it was today. What could we accomplish in our individual workplaces? What could we accomplish as a nation? As simple as it is, I appreciated the lesson that stayed with me from our discussion with the president. In an environment that is more divisive than ever and a society that is more interconnected than ever, it is the fundamental qualities of dedication, commitment, and civility that will enable us to move Ford constructively as a society. I thank President Ford and his family, however belatedly, for sharing that lesson with us. And I thank you all for allowing me to share it with you today. Thank you. Thanks very much to each of you for your very moving remarks. In a moment, I'm going to welcome Mike Ford to the podium, but before I do that, I just want to note a slight change in the printed program that you all have in front of you. After Mike Ford's remarks, instead of closing remarks from me, we will view a video remembrance of President Ford and then we'll hear one of President Ford's favorite campus institutions, the University of Michigan's Men's Glee Club. Following that, we invite all of you to join us for a reception in the Great Hall. Mike Ford is an ordained minister. He currently directs the Office of Student Development at Wake Forest University. It is an honor to welcome him to speak with us and share his thoughts this afternoon. Mike Ford. Thank you, Dean Collins and President Coleman. This is a most wonderful day for the University of Michigan, for the Ford School of Public Policy and for the Ford family. And it is a great pleasure for me, as the son of Gerald Ford, to experience this day and to be here to really take in the amazing culture and essence of this wonderful school. I do wish that my mother could be with us. I spoke to her on my way down yesterday and she was very sorry that she could not be here, but she asked for a full report when I returned home and also promised that she would be visiting the University of Michigan and the school here as soon as she possibly can and we're gonna make that happen. I also wish that my father were here. And yet, as I say that, I think of his presence in the flesh, I very much feel that he is here in his spirit and his character and just the imprint that he has put on this place, the University and this school in particular. A year ago at this time, when we dedicated this wonderful building, we had hoped that he could be with us then and that was not possible. It was really not part of God's plan and design for his life at that time, but rather God was preparing to call him home to his heavenly kingdom. So we know that my dad is very present in this place and we miss him. As I look around the school, I do feel in sense that my father is here through the love of learning that is just infused in this place, the standard of excellence that the school has set forth and in the great commitment to public service for our country and the greater good. And I know that if my father were here in the flesh that he would be enormously proud and very, very grateful for this school that's been named in his honor. All of us in the Ford family, beginning with my father are truly humbled by how history has brought us to this day and to this point. And you've heard different excerpts and vignettes about the story of this young, hardworking, truth telling, very personable scholar-athlete who found himself at South High School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was in 1931 and the Great Depression had left Gerald Ford Sr. and Dorothy Gardner Ford with little or no means to send their oldest son to college. But Arthur Krause, the principal of South High School, saw a great promise and great personal drive in this young Gerald Ford. And so as we heard from the letter, he contacted Coach Harry Kipke at the University of Michigan and he introduced Coach Kipke to the young Ford who at that time was the Allstate High School Center and he also was the captain and leader of the Allstate Champion Football Team at South High. Coach Kipke liked what he saw in the young Ford and he secured, he helped secure a job for Gerald Ford at the hospital dining hall there with the nurses, waiting tables and then Principal Krause, he proceeded to develop a student scholarship at his school at South High from the revenues of their bookstore there and Gerald Ford was the first recipient of the South High Academic Scholarship which helped pay the $100 tuition for the first two semesters of school. Can you believe that? So began by my father's great love relationship with the University of Michigan and four formative and very memorable years passed and as he threw himself into his academics and into his athletic career, a strong student majoring in economics and an outstanding athlete and leader, playing on two national championship football teams, the most valuable player, captain of the team as a senior selected to the All Big 10 team and playing in the East West Shrine game. What a wonderful four years at the U of M and from the University of Michigan, my father moved on to the Yale Law School and that followed a distinguished career of public service serving first with armed forces in the Pacific Theater as a Navy Lieutenant Commander for four years right on the front line, then returning to Grand Rapids to start his law practice and to give leadership to the community as a civic leader and engaged in trying to improve the peoples, the community there. 25 years of service as representative of the Fifth District of Michigan and believe me, I remember as a child, him dragging myself and my brothers and sisters from place to place to the Wyoming rodeo event and then the Cedar Rapids Red Flannel Day and then the Holland Tulip Festival and we loved every minute of it and it was his love of serving his constituents. Eight years as minority leader in the House of Representatives appointed and confirmed as Vice President of the United States and finally serving as the 38th President of the United States as was stated that was not his goal, a professional goal, his political goal. He longed to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, a man of the House, but history and divine providence had another plan in mind for Jerry Ford. And these last several months as I've had a chance to reflect on my father's life, I've really been encouraged. Many, many wonderful things have been said, many wonderful tributes and I cherish those, but I also am encouraged by the fact that he really was a human being. He was just like each one of us and he had his own set of foibles and vulnerabilities and gosh, did he have a quick temper? Whoa, but he had a short memory too. But through his youth and his young adulthood, he was a person who was able to grow and develop at a very rapid and ambitious and purposeful pace. And it was during this time that my father was able to develop that personal set of ethics and integrity, that sense of courage and character and that great sense of call and duty to serve his fellow man and to do what he understood was best for all of mankind in every capacity that he had. And I do believe there were four really great influences on his life, particularly early on that shaped his worldview and the person that he was. First, his personal and steadfast pursuit of his relationship with God. Second, his loving and devoted and yet disciplined nurturing by his parents, Gerald Ford Sr. and Dorothy Ford. His love story of 58 plus years with his bride and his best friend, Betty Bloomer Ford. And finally, his rich and wonderful experiences of learning and service and friendship here at the University of Michigan. Many times he would come back to the University of Michigan and he'd find his way back and as was referred to earlier, my mother loves to tell the story of going on her honeymoon, you know, and she was going to some fancy hotel in Detroit. But there was a slight detour along the way between Grand Rapids and Detroit and that was to a University of Michigan football game. But it was all for the good. And when we were children, he would bring my brother's sisters back to the University of Michigan many times. He tried to encourage us all to come here and we chose different routes and he affirmed that. He respected and encouraged that. But I think my greatest memory of my father's visit to the University of Michigan was in the fall of 1994. And this was the year that the University of Michigan retired his football. And it was a beautiful fall day, much like today and the big house was filled up with Michigan fans as well as Michigan State fans. That was the big game of the day. And they, at halftime, they put him on a cart and we were right there, all the kids and my mom and he came out the tunnel and there was a great round of applause and we came out to the center of the field and this was halftime and most people were gonna halftime. The whole stadium stayed and the Michigan fans and the Michigan State Spartan fans, they all stood up and gave him a rousing standing ovation because he was their native son. And he began to get very emotional because this was the ground, the very ground that he had spent playing, competing 50 years, 50 years prior to that as a student athlete and that was like coming home to him. That was one of the greatest honors that he had ever received was to have his football jersey. Number 48 retired that day. So we thank the University of Michigan and this great family of the Fords and of his and I know that this wonderful school, the Ford School will carry on in great fashion the legacy of my father and this is a wonderful way to celebrate his life and to do what he has given his life to and that is to give back to his fellow man. So thank you very much. 1931, I found Michigan to be all that I hoped or feared here was bigger and better. I had the benefit of some very good professors. The lady professor who was excellent, really first class and stimulating my interest personally in the career in government. Over a period of time as you grow and as you mature, you have to always look at the compass and see that you're following it in the right direction. Vice President, are you prepared to take the oath of office as President of the United States? High answer. You will raise your right hand and plead after me. I, Gerald R. Ford, do solemnly swear. I, Gerald R. Ford, do solemnly swear that I will face to the opposite that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States. The office of President of the United States will to the best of my ability and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend, preserve, protect, and defend constitutional and the United States. The Constitution of the United States will help me God. So I'll be God. I'll be the President. Since leaving the White House, One of the really interesting and most enjoyable things I've been doing has been to visit college and university campuses. In fact, the first one I did that was here at the University of Michigan. The teaching and the research of the university may be centered right here in Ann Arbor. But the impact of its quality extends far, far beyond the boundaries of this community and the borders of our state of Michigan. I felt myself academically qualified to have my name. I was school at the university. Although I was in the upper of 15% of my graduating class, I would hope that the legacy would be the stimulation of young people to get into public service either as an elected officer of the government or as a civil servant. If we can stimulate good people to serve in government, I think that's a great tribute to the school. This is an ABC News special report. General R. Ford died last night at the age of 93. I still get goosebumps when I hear hail to the victors, just as I did in the Michigan stadium some 50 years ago. Second only to Grand Rapids. The University of Michigan shaped Gerald Ford's character and brought him to that look. In placing a memorial leaf on behalf of the entire Wolverine family, Mary Sue Coleman expresses the university's own pride in and affection for its most distinguished graduate. Forever be proud of my association with this great great university. Seeing to the colors that float in the light In excellence and strength it grew nourished By the University of Michigan The people said be free to teach, to serve, to probe the unknown Her children come from rank from freedom spring Where art, where science, where truths reveal to those whose minds would sing The University of Michigan The people said be free to teach, to serve, to probe the unknown Days pale light, she seeks in fields diverse New knowledge found within her halls has changed the universe University of Michigan The people said be free to teach, to serve, to probe the unknown End of Michigan on to victory, every man in every clay Michigan expects her, our city, to win To Michigan, never yield, raise high our shield March on to victory, come, and the Mason Blue, our city We're for you, here for you, to cheer for you We have you triumphant, here they come with banner spying In Star Wars have they're dying With shops of victory crying We hurrah, hurrah, we greet you now For we their praises sing for the glory and fame They have brought bells and ring For here they come with banner spying For we their praises tell for the glory Glory to the victor's valiant hail In mutual hail to the victor's valiant Hail to the conquering hills Hail, hail, to Michigan the leaders And best with pride we hail