An inkling of that history-making event dawned on Ford during a party he hosted with Manalapan resident and Amway founder Richard DeVos, a close friend.
During the party for about 40 guests, Ford learned from a TV broadcast of the now infamous missing segments of the Watergate tapes. DeVos said he turned to his friend and matter-of-factly predicted Ford’s elevation to the presidency.
“I’m not sure yet,” was Ford’s response, according to DeVos, who formed a fast friendship with the late president when the two were in Michigan.
DeVos described Ford as a “man of the people.”
“He was always available. He came to all of the Amway openings,” DeVos said.
DeVos, speaking from his boat off of St. John in the Caribbean, described Ford as modest and humble.
He said Ford rose to the nation’s highest office during a pivotal time in history, accomplishing more in two years than many presidents do in a full term.
“The economy was out of control; we had [rampant] inflation; we were still in Vietnam,” DeVos noted. “He helped this country settle down.”
DeVos served on the board of the Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids, Mich. His Amway Grand Plaza Hotel is just across the river. Both opened the same night.
DeVos remained close to Ford throughout the years, often trading phone calls and handwritten notes. The last letter DeVos received from Ford arrived about a month ago, and exhibited a strengthening in the former president’s handwriting in spite of his illness, DeVos said.
DeVos said he will serve as a pallbearer in the former president’s funeral.
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