GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — It was 50 years ago Wednesday that Gerald R. Ford became the vice president of the United States.

It was far from a normal ascension to the position.

Fifty years ago, the nation did not yet know the full weight the Watergate scandal would bring to the highest echelons of government. What they did know was they had a new vice president, even if they weren’t sure exactly who he was.

Gerald R. Ford was the minority leader in the U.S. House when Spiro Agnew, the former Maryland governor who Richard Nixon had selected as his vice president, resigned in October of 1973.

Agnew had been under suspicion of wrongdoing and kickbacks from his time as a county executive in Maryland. Even as the Watergate controversy began to slowly unfold, the pressure on Agnew to resign was mounting for the unrelated scandal.

In October of that year, he pleaded no contest to one count felony tax evasion and resigned.

Nixon reportedly considered a number of people for the job of vice president: Nelson Rockefeller, Ronald Reagan, even John Connally, the former Democratic governor of Texas.

Ford was likely selected largely because he would be the easiest to get confirmed by Congress given his long tenure and relationship with members.

U.S. Rep. Gerald R. Ford Jr., R-Mich., speaks at the White House after President Richard Nixon nominated him for the office of vice president in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 13, 1973. (AP Photo)
U.S. Rep. Gerald R. Ford Jr., R-Mich., speaks at the White House after President Richard Nixon nominated him for the office of vice president in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 13, 1973. (AP Photo)

It was a confirmation that the former president looked back on fondly during an interview in 1999, when political reporter Rick Albin asked him what he was most proud of in his public life.

His service in Congress, not surprisingly, was his first answer.

“But I am also very proud that when vice president Agnew resigned, that there was a groundswell that I should be the nominee for vice president,” he added. “Two Democrats — the Democrat leader in the Senate Mike Mansfield, and the Democrat Speaker of the House Carl Albert — recommended to President Nixon that I be nominated. And an overwhelming number of House members urged Nixon to nominate me. And when I look at the vote in the House where I was overwhelmingly approved by Democrats as well as Republicans, and when I look at the vote in the Senate where I think the vote was 97 to three, I’m mighty proud of that.”

Ford was far from a household name when he was sworn in. In the months to come, Gerald R. Ford became a national figure and one in which many believed the future of the nation had been entrusted.

When the House and Senate confirmed Jerry Ford as vice president, no doubt many of them believed they were ultimately selecting the next president of the United States. They perhaps didn’t know just how soon that would happen.

Over the course of the next year, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation will be celebrating a number of important milestones on the “Rise to the Presidency.” News 8 will be highlighting some of those history-making moments as well.