Diana R. Sieger is the president of the Grand Rapids Commmunity Foundation. For more information, visit Diana's President's pages or view her biography.

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President's Point of View: In honor of President Gerald R. Ford

January 7, 2007

President Gerald Ford’s funeral service in Grand Rapids should not go unmentioned in a blog that is meant to inform our community and beyond about this community foundation and philanthropy. I was honored and VERY SURPRISED to be invited to attend the funeral service held on Wednesday, January 3rd at Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids.

The funeral service was televised as were the previous services in Palm Desert, California and at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C. Like the two other ceremonies, the Grand Rapids service was invitation only and was quite heartwarming. The invitees were taken by buses to the church from downtown Grand Rapids. The view from the bus of the masses of people lining the streets from downtown Grand Rapids to the church in East Grand Rapids left many of the “take-charge” personalities of all of us on the bus simply speechless. To see all the people was a testimony to President Ford particularly after the overnight viewing of the flag-covered casket at the Ford Presidential Museum when 57,000 people waited many hours to do so.

I thought the service was nothing short of phenomenal. The eulogies were quite heartwarming and personal. The tributes were delivered by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former President Jimmy Carter and Presidential historian Richard Norton Smith, who is extremely bright, and quite the humorist and former director of the Ford Presidential Museum. The United States Army Chorus was tremendous and there wasn’t a dry eye in the church when the soloist Sergeant First Class Alvy R. Powell, Jr. sang “On Eagle’s Wings”. He was grand!

After waiting for all to be escorted out of the church, we were driven back downtown. The family and the closest friends were participating in the interment service just north of the museum where President Ford was laid to rest on the west side of the Grand River in downtown Grand Rapids. The rest of us and the entire community shared in the experience of viewing the breathtaking flyover of the missing man formation as the jets traveled up the river. It was nothing short of fantastic paying homage to the man that Gerald Ford was.

Mrs. Ford and her children and grandchildren were obviously moved by the entire service and I have to say they are a remarkable family. The national media repeatedly characterized the fact that President Ford’s values were rooted in the Midwest and West Michigan. The children of President and Mrs. Ford definitely demonstrate the lessons learned from their parents as seen when the sons personally greeted people who were waiting in the long lines in Grand Rapids to view their father’s casket.

I would like to add that Marty Allen, the chair emeritus of the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, did a magnificent job of supporting the family and representing Grand Rapids to the rest of the world. Thank you Marty for your hard work, tireless effort and for being a true and great friend to President Ford.