The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
CARTER RECEIVES GERALD R. FORD MEDAL
Presidential rivals became friends after terms ended.
From the Nobel Peace Prize to several Grammys, former President Jimmy Carter’s won nearly every major honor available.
But the 2017 Gerald R. Ford Medal for Distinguished Public Service comes with one heck of a backstory.
Carter couldn’t attend Monday night’s Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation dinner in Washington, D.C., where the award was announced; instead, he received the medal at his Atlanta office last month in a ceremony that included Steven Ford, whose father Carter defeated in one of the closest presidential elections ever, in 1976 — then went on to form a remarkable friendship with.
“As I reflect back on more than 25 different projects that Jerry and I collaborated and shared leadership (on), I can’t help but be grateful for the mutual respect and the intense personal friendship that developed during that time together,” Carter, 92, said in a video. “The words I spoke about my dear friend both at my inauguration and his funeral still ring true today. ‘For myself and for our nation, I thank my predecessor for all he did to heal our land.’”
Ford unexpectedly became president in August 1974 when Richard Nixon resigned. Soon after Carter left the White House in 1981, the two men found themselves bonding during a long flight from Cairo and the funeral of their mutual friend, Egyptian President Anwar el-Sadat. They monitored elections together, swapped notes on building presidential libraries, and gradually became close enough that Ford even asked his onetime rival to speak at his funeral someday.
Ford died at 93 in 2006. In his eulogy, Carter cited their shared bios as Navy veterans and husbands of “good-looking, smart and extremely independent” wives, then quipped, “And we both enjoyed our unexpected promotion to commander in chief.”
Carter was honored for his “significant foreign policy achievements,” including the Camp David Accords, and for championing human rights and disease eradication both in and out of office. But Steven Ford, citing “the current toxic times,” said that his father and Carter also deserved credit for “illustrat(ing) to the nation that politics can be handled with dignity, class and respect.”
Something similar seemed to be on Carter’s mind.
“I hope you continue the heritage of Gerald R. Ford,” he concluded his remarks. “Of integrity and honesty and truthfulness, and competence in public service.”