A quote from ABC News reporter Jeff Wilson, Associated Press 2006, regarding his adoptee status follows.

He was born Leslie King on July 14, 1913, in Omaha, Neb. His parents were divorced when he was less than a year old, and his mother returned to her parents in Grand Rapids, where she later married Gerald R. Ford Sr. He adopted the boy and renamed him.

Ford was a high school senior when he met his biological father. He was working in a Greek restaurant, he recalled, when a man came in and stood watching.

"Finally, he walked over and said, `I'm your father,'" Ford said. "Well, that was quite a shock." But he wrote in his memoir that he broke down and cried that night and he was left with the image of "a carefree, well-to-do man who didn't really give a **** about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son."

I don’t think I realized that President Ford was adopted until I saw the above quote. In doing further research I learned that President Ford was adopted in 1916 and he didn’t know he was adopted until he was 12 or 17 years old. I had found conflicting information.

Apparently the meeting President Ford had with his natural father at his part time restaurant job was the first and last time the two ever met. President Ford had three half sisters and one half brother on his natural father’s side who had remarried. President Ford also had three half brothers on his mother’s side from her second marriage.

One source I looked at regarding President Ford at http://www.answers.com/topic/gerald-ford#wp-_note-utexas states that when President Ford’s mother remarried in 1916 she began calling her son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. and that the president was never formally adopted. The document further states that he did not legally change his name until December 3, 1935 and used a more conventional spelling of his middle name. In addition this source says that he wasn’t aware of his actual parentage until shortly before turning fifteen.

By reading on line about the president, it is very difficult to see or imagine how adoption affected his life. However, I am pretty sure that the adoption experience did effect his life. A recent article at http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Politics/story?id=2761664&page=1 dated December 30, 2001 quotes a young girl age 13 named Anise Meena. She received inspiration from President Ford when she met him at a special church blessing for adopted children. The president told Anise that he too was adopted. “He said, “Hello, I’m Gerald Ford, the president,” Anise recalled. “I felt, wow a person who could become president is adopted? I could become president too. And I felt really special too.”

So, President Ford may be remembered as the Man of the People, or the President who brought the nation and the presidency back on it’s feet after Watergate but I can’t help but think deeper than that and how adoption affected his life, his relationships, and how that experience hindered and strengthened his success.

The next thoughts I have had are of the presidents natural family and how the adoption experience and his presidency has affected them. I am sure that his natural father is deceased as he would more than likely be 100+ years of age. It would be interesting to read about his siblings and how the adoption experience has affected their lives or their children’s lives.