Constitution Avenue
Constitution Avenue is a major east-west street in the northwest and northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D. C. in the United States. It was known as B Street, its western section was lengthened and widened between 1925 and 1933, it received its current name on February 26, 1931. Constitution Avenue's western half defines the northern border of the National Mall and extends from the United States Capitol to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge, its eastern half runs through the neighborhoods of Capitol Hill and Kingman Park before it terminates at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium. A large number of federal departmental headquarters and museums line Constitution Avenue's western segment; when the District of Columbia was founded in 1790, the Potomac River was much wider than it is, a major tidal estuary known as Tiber Creek flowed from 6th Street NW to the shore of the river. In Pierre Charles L'Enfant's original plan for the city in 1791, B Street NW began at 6th Street NW, ended at the river's edge at 15th Street NW.
Its eastern segment, unimpeded by any water obstacles, ran straight to the Eastern Branch river. Along its entire length, B Street was 60 feet wide. L'Enfant proposed turning Tiber Creek into a canal, his plan included cutting a new canal south across the western side of the United States Capitol grounds and converting James Creek into the canal's southern leg. The Washington Canal Company was incorporated in 1802, after several false starts substantial work began in 1810; the Washington City Canal began operation in 1815. The canal suffered from maintenance problems and economic competition immediately. Traffic on the canal was adversely affected by tidal forces, which the builders had not accounted for, which deposited large amounts of sediment in the canal. At low tide, portions of the canal were dry. After the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad built Washington Branch into the city in 1835, competition from railroads left the canal economically unviable. Although the Washington City Canal remained in use after the coming of the railroad, by 1855 it had filled with silt and debris to the point where it was not longer functional.
It remained in this condition throughout the 1860s. In 1871, Congress abolished the elected mayor and bicameral legislature of the District of Columbia, established a territorial government. Territorial government only lasted until 1874, but during this period the D. C. Board of Public Works turned it into a sewer. B Street NW from 15th Street to Virginia Avenue NW was constructed on top of it. Work began in October 1871 and was complete in December 1873. After terrible flooding inundated much of downtown Washington, D. C. in 1881, Congress ordered the United States Army Corps of Engineers to dredge a deep channel in the Potomac to lessen the chance of flooding. Congress ordered that the dredged material be used to fill in what remained of the Tiber Creek estuary and build up much of the land near the White House and along Pennsylvania Avenue NW by nearly 6 feet to form a kind of levee; this "reclaimed land" — which today includes West Potomac Park, East Potomac Park, the Tidal Basin — was complete by 1890, designated Potomac Park by Congress in 1897.
Congress first appropriated money for the beautification of the reclaimed land in 1902, which led to the planting of sod and trees. B Street NW extended through the newly created West Potomac Park between Virginia Avenue NW and 23rd Street NW. However, since this area was considered parkland, the street narrowed to just 40-foot in width. On March 4, 1913, Congress created the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission whose purpose was to design and build a bridge somewhere in West Potomac Park which would link the city to Arlington National Cemetery, but Congress appropriated no money for the design or construction due to the onset of World War I. But after President Warren G. Harding was trapped in a three-hour traffic jam on the Highway Bridge while on his way to dedicate the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier on November 11, 1921, Harding began pushing Congress to move on constructing a new bridge. Congress approved funding for design work on June 12, 1922, authorized construction of the Arlington Memorial Bridge on February 24, 1925.
The 1925 legislation specified that B Street NW be treated as a major approach to Arlington Memorial Bridge. Several design problems presented themselves; the first was. The second was; this second problem was important, because the Lincoln Memorial stood at the northeastern terminus of the proposed bridge. Third, the Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway was being designed to terminate at the Lincoln Memorial as well; the parkway would interact with the B Street approaches to the bridge. Additionally, three agencies had design approval over the bridge; the first was the AMBC, building it. The second was the National Capital Parks Commission, which had statutory authority to approve federal transportation construction in the city; the third was the United States Commission of Fine Arts. Since the bridge was considered a memorial, it had to pass CFA muster as well. In April 1924, the Arlington Memorial Bridge Commission proposed extending B Street all the way to the U. S. Capitol as part of the plan to turn t
Ray Marshall
Freddie Ray Marshall is the Professor Emeritus of the Audre and Bernard Rapoport Centennial Chair in Economics and Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Marshall was born in 1928 in Louisiana, his Ph. D. is under supervision of Walter Galenson. He has held several academic posts, but since 1962 has been at the University of Texas, with the exception of his term as United States Secretary of Labor as a member of Jimmy Carter's Administration; as Secretary of Labor, he expanded public service and job-training programs, as a part of Carter's economic stimulus program. Marshall was one of the founders of the Economic Policy Institute in 1986. F. Ray Marshall, Labor in the South, Harvard University Press, 1967. ISBN 9780674507005. Ray Marshall. Thinking for a Living: Education and the Wealth of Nations. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-08557-6. Editor: Back to Shared Prosperity: The Growing Inequality of Wealth and Income in America, ISBN 978-0765604255. U. S. Department of Labor Marshall biography
Carl Levin
Carl Milton Levin is an American attorney and retired politician who served as a United States Senator from Michigan from 1979 to 2015. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Born in Detroit, Levin is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Law School, he worked as the General Counsel of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1964 to 1967, as a special assistant attorney general for the Michigan Attorney General's Office. Levin was elected to the Detroit City Council in 1968, serving from 1969 to 1977, was president of the City Council from 1973 to 1977. In 1978, Levin ran for the United States Senate, defeating incumbent Republican Senator Robert P. Griffin. Levin was re-elected in 1984, 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008. On March 7, 2013, Levin announced. On March 9, 2015, Levin announced he was joining the Detroit-based law firm Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP. Levin became Michigan's senior senator in 1995, he is the longest-serving senator in the state's history, was the fourth longest-serving incumbent in the U.
S. Senate. Levin was born in Detroit, is the son of Jewish parents and Saul R. Levin. Saul served on the Michigan Corrections Commission, he graduated from Detroit Central High School in 1952, worked as a taxi driver and an auto factory worker. He attended Swarthmore College, graduating with his Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1956, he attended Harvard Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1959. He received honorary degrees from Michigan State University in 2004, Wayne State University in 2005, Michigan Technological University in 2008. After earning his law degree, he was admitted to the State Bar of Michigan, he entered private practice as a lawyer for Grossman and Grossman and taught law at Wayne State University and the University of Detroit Mercy. Levin was the general counsel for the Michigan Civil Rights Commission from 1964 to 1967, where he helped form the Detroit Public Defender's Office and led the Appellate Division of that office, which has become the State Appellate Defender's Office.
He served as a special assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan and chief appellate defender for the city of Detroit from 1968 to 1969. Levin was elected to the Detroit City Council in 1969, serving two four-year terms from 1970 to 1977. Levin served as president of the City Council throughout his entire second term, until the end of his tenure. During his time as council president, Levin became so frustrated with the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's handling of repossessed houses in Detroit, that he and other members of the council, went out with a bulldozer "to help raze some of the houses." He was close to Detroit Mayor Coleman Young, the city's first African-American Mayor, was described by Forbes as Mayor Young's "right hand man." During his time on the City Council, Levin practiced law part-time, working as a counsel for the Schlussel, Simon and Kaufman law firm from 1971 to 1973. He served as the general counsel at Jaffe, Raitt and Heuer, from 1978 to 1979.
Levin was elected to the United States Senate in 1978, defeating incumbent Republican Senator Robert P. Griffin. Committee on Armed Services As Chairman of the full committee, Sen. Levin may serve as an ex officio member of all subcommittees Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, Federal Services, International Security Subcommittee on Oversight of Government Management, the Federal Workforce, the District of Columbia Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Ad Hoc Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship Select Committee on Intelligence On January 22, 2013, Levin introduced the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Conservation and Recreation Act into the Senate; the bill would designate as wilderness about 32,500 acres of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in the state of Michigan. The newly designated lands and inland waterways would comprise the Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness, a new component of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Levin was the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. He has served as the Democratic ranking member on the committee since January 7, 1997. Levin chaired the committee when the Democratic Party was the majority party in the Senate, January 3–20, 2001 and June 6, 2001 – January 6, 2003. Levin joined the Armed Services Committee upon joining the Senate. Recalling when he was assigned the committee seat, he said that he wanted to learn more about the armed services. "I had never served, I thought there was a big gap in terms of my background and, felt it was a way of providing service."He is a strong advocate for cost controls regarding military procurements. He has pushed for less secrecy in government, working to declassify many documents where claims of ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda are concerned. Levin believes that in order to improve the military the United States needs to shut down more installations and get rid of excess infrastructure. Under his leadership, the Committee of Armed Forces passed the Defense Base Realignment and Closure Act, which closed some military bases.
Levin supported the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, ensuring that all nuclear and biological weapons from post-Soviet states, are secured and dismantled. Levin argued that Nunn-Lugar presented "a chance to bury the ne
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy referred to by his initials JFK, was an American politician and journalist who served as the 35th president of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. He served at the height of the Cold War, the majority of his presidency dealt with managing relations with the Soviet Union. A member of the Democratic Party, Kennedy represented Massachusetts in the U. S. House of Representatives and Senate prior to becoming president. Kennedy was born in Brookline, the second child of Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. and Rose Kennedy. He graduated from Harvard University in 1940 and joined the U. S. Naval Reserve the following year. During World War II, he commanded a series of PT boats in the Pacific theater and earned the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his service. After the war, Kennedy represented the 11th congressional district of Massachusetts in the U. S. House of Representatives from 1947 to 1953, he was subsequently elected to the U. S. Senate and served as the junior Senator from Massachusetts from 1953 to 1960.
While in the Senate, he published his book Profiles in Courage, which won a Pulitzer Prize for Biography. In the 1960 presidential election, Kennedy narrowly defeated Republican opponent Richard Nixon, the incumbent vice president. At age 43, he became the second-youngest man to serve as president, the youngest man to be elected as U. S. president, as well as the only Roman Catholic to occupy that office. He was the first president to have served in the U. S. Navy. Kennedy's time in office was marked by high tensions with communist states in the Cold War, he increased the number of American military advisers in South Vietnam by a factor of 18 over President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In April 1961, he authorized a failed joint-CIA attempt to overthrow the Cuban government of Fidel Castro in the Bay of Pigs Invasion, he subsequently rejected Operation Northwoods plans by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to orchestrate false flag attacks on American soil in order to gain public approval for a war against Cuba.
However his administration continued to plan for an invasion of Cuba in the summer of 1962. In October 1962, U. S. spy planes discovered. Domestically, Kennedy presided over the establishment of the Peace Corps and supported the civil rights movement, but was only somewhat successful in passing his New Frontier domestic policies. On November 22, 1963, Kennedy was assassinated in Texas. Pursuant to the Constitution, Vice President Lyndon Johnson automatically became president upon Kennedy's death. Marxist Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the state crime, but he was killed by Jack Ruby two days and so was never prosecuted. Ruby was sentenced to death and died while the conviction was on appeal in 1967. Both the FBI and the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald had acted alone in the assassination, but various groups challenged the findings of the Warren Report and believed that Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy. After Kennedy's death, Congress enacted many of his proposals, including the Civil Rights Act and the Revenue Act of 1964.
Kennedy continues to rank in polls of U. S. presidents with historians and the general public. His personal life has been the focus of considerable public fascination following revelations regarding his lifelong health ailments and alleged extra-marital affairs, his average approval rating of 70% is the highest of any president in Gallup's history of systematically measuring job approval. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29, 1917, at 83 Beals Street in suburban Brookline, Massachusetts, to businessman/politician Joseph Patrick "Joe" Kennedy and philanthropist/socialite Rose Elizabeth Fitzgerald Kennedy, his paternal grandfather P. J. Kennedy was a member of the Massachusetts state legislature, his maternal grandfather and namesake John F. Fitzgerald served as a U. S. Congressman and was elected to two terms as Mayor of Boston. All four of his grandparents were children of Irish immigrants. Kennedy had an elder brother, Joseph Jr. and seven younger siblings: Rosemary, Eunice, Robert and Edward.
As of 2019, he has been the only Catholic U. S. President. Kennedy lived in Brookline for the first ten years of his life and attended the local St. Aidan's Church, where he was baptized on June 19, 1917, he was educated at the Edward Devotion School in Brookline, the Noble and Greenough Lower School in nearby Dedham and the Dexter School through the 4th grade. His father's business had kept him away from the family for long stretches of time, his ventures were concentrated on Wall Street and Hollywood. In September 1927, the family moved from Brookline to the Riverdale neighborhood of New York City. Young John attended the lower campus of Riverdale Country School, a private school for boys, from 5th to 7th grade. Two years the family moved to suburban Bronxville, New York, where Kennedy was a member of Boy Scout Troop 2 and attended St. Joseph's Church; the Kennedy family spent summers and early autumns at their home in Hyannis Port and Christmas and Easter holidays at their winter retreat in Palm Beach, Florida purchased in 1933.
In September 1930, Kennedy—then 13 years old—attended the Canterbury School in New Milford, for 8th grade. In April 1931, he had an appendectomy, after which he withdrew from Canterbury and recuperated at home. In September 1931, Kennedy started attending Choate, a prestigious board
Interstate 395 (Virginia–District of Columbia)
Interstate 395 in Washington, D. C. and Virginia is a 13.39-mile-long spur route of Interstate 95 that begins at an interchange with I-95 in Springfield and ends at an interchange with U. S. Route 50 in northwest Washington, D. C, it passes underneath the National Mall near the U. S. Capitol and ends at a junction with U. S. Route 50 at New York Avenue one mile north of the 3rd Street Tunnel. Despite its proximity to I-395 in Maryland, the route is unconnected; the intersection where I-395, I-95, the I-495 meet is called the Springfield Interchange. Unofficially, this interchange is referred to as The Mixing Bowl; this moniker causes confusion, because the intersection of I-395, Washington Boulevard, Columbia Pike several miles north was known by that name, continues to be recognized by the Virginia Department of Transportation as such. I-395 contains a reversible, barrier-separated Virginia HOT lanes facility known locally as the "express lanes", with its own entrances and exits, provided as a third roadway of Interstates 395 and 95 between South Eads Street near the Pentagon in Arlington County and State Route 610 in Stafford County, Virginia.
During rush hour, the HOV facility operates in the direction of rush-hour traffic and is restricted to vehicles containing three or more passengers. Motorcycles, alternative fuel cars, hybrids registered in Virginia before July 1, 2006, federal law enforcement vehicles are permitted to use HOV lanes if carrying only one occupant. At other times, the facility is either open to all traffic in one direction or closed to all traffic. In 2012, the exemption was modified to be "open-ended" rather than year-to-year; the facility was constructed with a single lane as the first busway in the United States before being expanded and converted to HOV use. 65% of travelers on I-395 utilized the HOV lanes during the morning rush hour: 32,000 rode transit and 29,000 used private vehicles with 2 or more people. 33,000 commuters drove alone. I-395 and US 1 cross the Potomac River from Virginia to Washington, D. C. on three parallel four-lane bridges, together known as the 14th Street Bridge. Potomac River crossings for the Washington Metro's Yellow Line and for a major CSX railroad line are downstream here.
This site has long been a major Potomac River crossing, with the first bridge constructed here in 1809. Of the present highway spans, the eastern one was built in 1950, the western one in 1962, the central one in 1972. During an evening rush-hour snowstorm in 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 crashed on take-off from National Airport, hitting the easternmost of the three highway bridges; the oldest span named the Rochambeau, is now named the Arland D. Williams, Jr. Memorial Bridge, in honor of a passenger of Flight 90 who survived the crash, escaped from the sinking aircraft, perished in the Potomac River while saving others from the icy waters; the center span is now called the Rochambeau Bridge, the western span, the George Mason Memorial Bridge. The following names are used for I-395 in the District: the Southwest Freeway from the 14th Street Bridge to the Southeast Freeway interchange, the Center Leg or Center Leg Freeway from the Southeast Freeway interchange to New York Avenue, the Third Street Tunnel for the segment of the Center Leg under the National Mall.
The portion of Interstate 395 between the Pentagon in Arlington and the interchange with Interstate 95 and the Capital Beltway in Springfield is part of the Henry G. Shirley Memorial Highway, named for a Virginia Highway Commissioner who died on July 16, 1941, just a few weeks after approving work on the new expressway. State Route 350, the full length of the Shirley Highway was opened on September 6, 1949, from south of the Pentagon to Woodbridge, along what is now better known as the Interstate 95 corridor; the Shirley Highway featured the nation's first reversible bus lanes, a precursor to today's HOV lanes. Original plans called for I-95 to travel through Washington, D. C. and Prince George's County, toward the northeastern portion of the Capital Beltway, from which I-95 presently continues its northbound route. However, neighborhood opposition in the District halted this plan in 1977, diverting planned funding toward construction of the Washington Metro; the only remnant of the Maryland extension is a series of ramp stubs near College Park, which now lead to a Park & Ride.
The portion of I-95 within the Beltway became I-395, while the eastern half of the Beltway was re-designated I-95. I-395 terminates in Washington, D. C. at a traffic signal at U. S. Route 50, New York Avenue, near Mount Vernon Square; the District government finalized a deal in 2010 with the Louis Dreyfus Group to construct a 2,100,000-square-foot mixed-use development in the airspace over the Center Leg Freeway portion of Interstate 395. The $425 million office and retail project at the east end of the Judiciary Square neighborhood will restore the area's original L'Enfant Plan street grid by reconnecting F and G Streets over the freeway; the project was awaiting final regulatory approval and expected to be complete by 2016. In 2015, work began on I-395 in conjunction with the Capitol Crossing, a major real estate project in D. C, part of which lies on top of the highway; the work involves adding a $200 million concrete platform that connects neighborhoods that have been severed by the freeway, creating a better community atmosphere in the eastern edge of downtown.
DDOT expected. In 2015, the Commonwealth of Virgi
Department of Labor Building
The Department of Labor Building known as the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building, is a historic office building, located at 14th Street, Constitution Avenue, Washington, D. C. in the Federal Triangle. It was the headquarters building for the United States Department of Labor from its opening until the 1970s, it housed the U. S. Customs Service, is occupied by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency. Arthur Brown, Jr. designed the building between 1928 and 1931, construction was completed in 1934. The building was constructed as part of the Federal Triangle development. Although plans to redevelop the slum Murder Bay had existed for decades, Congress did not fund the purchase of land or construction of buildings in the area until 1926. In July 1926, the government proposed building a Department of Labor Building between 13th and 14th Streets NW, on the north side of B Street NW. In March 1927, the government proposed adding a second building to the east for "Independent Offices". Design work proceeded slowly.
In April 1930, President Herbert Hoover proposed building a $2 million "Departmental Auditorium" to connect the Labor and ICC buildings. President Hoover laid the cornerstones for the Labor/ICC building on December 15, 1932. Freemasons trained in masonry assisted the President in laying the cornerstones. Hoover oversaw the dedication of the cornerstone at the Labor end of the building, his words were broadcast over loudspeaker to the workers at the ICC end of the structure, who placed the ICC cornerstone at the President's instruction. William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor, attended the laying of the cornerstone for the Labor building; the building was designated by Congress as a contributing structure to the Pennsylvania Avenue National Historic Site in 1966, it was subsequently listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Department of Labor was the original occupant of the building, it vacated the building in 1979. The Customs Service took occupancy in 1979 and remained until the late 1990s, when it moved to the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center.
In 2002 EPA moved in, the building was designated as the "EPA West" building. In 2013 Congress designated the William Jefferson Clinton Federal Building as a complex including the EPA West Building, along with two adjacent buildings which were known as the Interstate Commerce Commission Building and the Ariel Rios Federal Building. Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium wikimapia https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/3643241562/
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from August 1974 to January 1977. Before his accession to the presidency, Ford served as the 40th vice president of the United States from December 1973 to August 1974. Ford is the only person to have served as both vice president and president without being elected to either office by the United States Electoral College. Born in Omaha and raised in Grand Rapids, Ford attended the University of Michigan and Yale Law School. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the U. S. Naval Reserve, serving from 1942 to 1946. Ford began his political career in 1949 as the U. S. representative from Michigan's 5th congressional district. He served in this capacity for the final nine of them as the House Minority Leader. In December 1973, two months after the resignation of Spiro Agnew, Ford became the first person appointed to the vice presidency under the terms of the 25th Amendment by President Richard Nixon.
After the subsequent resignation of President Nixon in August 1974, Ford assumed the presidency. His 895 day-long presidency is the shortest in U. S. history for any president who did not die in office. As president, Ford signed the Helsinki Accords. With the collapse of South Vietnam nine months into his presidency, U. S. involvement in Vietnam ended. Domestically, Ford presided over the worst economy in the four decades since the Great Depression, with growing inflation and a recession during his tenure. In one of his most controversial acts, he granted a presidential pardon to President Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate scandal. During Ford's presidency, foreign policy was characterized in procedural terms by the increased role Congress began to play, by the corresponding curb on the powers of the President. In the Republican presidential primary campaign of 1976, Ford defeated former California Governor Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination, he narrowly lost the presidential election to the Democratic challenger, former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter.
Following his years as president, Ford remained active in the Republican Party. His moderate views on various social issues put him at odds with conservative members of the party in the 1990s and early 2000s. After experiencing a series of health problems, he died at home on December 26, 2006. Ford was born Leslie Lynch King Jr. on July 14, 1913, at 3202 Woolworth Avenue in Omaha, where his parents lived with his paternal grandparents. He was Leslie Lynch King Sr. a wool trader. His father was a son of Martha Alicia King. Gardner separated from King just sixteen days after her son's birth, she took her son with her to Oak Park, home of her sister Tannisse and brother-in-law, Clarence Haskins James. From there, she moved to the home of her parents, Levi Addison Gardner and Adele Augusta Ayer, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Gardner and King divorced in December 1913, she gained full custody of her son. Ford's paternal grandfather Charles Henry King paid child support until shortly before his death in 1930.
Ford said that his biological father had a history of hitting his mother. In a biography of Ford, James M. Cannon, a member of the Ford administration, wrote that the separation and divorce of Ford's parents were sparked when, a few days after Ford's birth, Leslie King took a butcher knife and threatened to kill his wife, his infant son, Ford's nursemaid. Ford told confidants that his father had first hit his mother when she smiled at another man during their honeymoon. After living with her parents for two-and-a-half years, Gardner married Gerald Rudolff Ford on February 1, 1916. Gerald was a salesman in a family-owned varnish company, they now called her son Gerald Rudolff Ford Jr. The future president was never formally adopted and did not change his name until December 3, 1935, he was raised in Grand Rapids with his three half-brothers from his mother's second marriage: Thomas Gardner "Tom" Ford, Richard Addison "Dick" Ford, James Francis "Jim" Ford. Ford had three half-siblings from the second marriage of Leslie King Sr. his biological father: Marjorie King, Leslie Henry King, Patricia Jane King.
They never saw one another as children, he did not know them at all until 1960. Ford was not aware of his biological father until he was 17, when his parents told him about the circumstances of his birth; that year his biological father, whom Ford described as a "carefree, well-to-do man who didn't give a damn about the hopes and dreams of his firstborn son", approached Ford while he was waiting tables in a Grand Rapids restaurant. The two "maintained a sporadic contact" until Leslie King Sr.'s death in 1941. Ford said, "My stepfather was a magnificent person and my mother wonderful. So I couldn't have written a better prescription for a superb family upbringing."Ford was involved in the Boy Scouts of America, earned that program's highest rank, Eagle Scout. He is the only Eagle Scout to have ascended to the U. S. Presidency. Ford attended Grand Rapids South High School, where he was a star athlete and captain of the football team. In 1930, he was selected to the All-City team of the Grand Rapids City League.
He attracted the attention of college recruiters. Ford attended the University of Michigan, he washed dishes at his f
