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Gerald Rudolff Ford (December 9, 1890 – January 26, 1962) was an American businessman and Republican politician who was the stepfather of U.S. President Gerald Ford and for whom Ford legally changed his name.
Early life
Ford was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he raised the future President. His parents were George R. and Frances (Pixley) Ford.
The senior Ford's father George Ford died in a train accident in 1903 forcing him to drop out of school to support the family. He was working as a paint salesman at the Grand Rapids Wood Finishing Company when he met the future president's mother Dorothy Ayer Gardner King. Dorothy had fled to Michigan from Omaha, Nebraska in 1913, 16 days after the President's birth, claiming that her husband (and her son's birth father), Leslie Lynch King, Sr., had physically abused her. She came to Grand Rapids to be near her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and Adele Augusta Ayer Gardner, who lived in the town.