Goodbye and thanks, Gerald R. Ford

by Larry Meyer
MRA Chairman and CEO

The death of a well-known person provides a natural occasion to look back and see where we’ve been as we consider where we want to go. President Ford’s death does that for me.

Let me tell you about the minor but interesting connection Gerald Ford had with Michigan Retailers. In 1979, only three years after leaving the White House, Ford was the keynote speaker at MRA’s Annual Meeting held in Lansing. (I’m not sure how we afforded his speaker’s fee of $10,000, but he was much more affordable than former President Clinton, who commands sums at least 10 times that amount.)

It was the most well-attended MRA Annual Meeting on record. More than 216 members attended, along with state legislators and dignitaries, including then-Attorney General Frank Kelley.

In my newly elected role as Executive Vice President and Secretary of the MRA Board of Directors, I had the privilege of presenting President Ford with a football—signed by MSU’s head football coach and players. Ford, of course, was captain of his University of Michigan football team back in the early 1930s.

A quick glance through the Michigan Retailer of that period gives the impression that times were very different then, and in some ways they were. But upon closer look, the old adage of “the more things change…” comes to mind.

In Ford’s keynote address he noted the bad shape of the economy. When you’re thinking of Michigan’s current woes, be thankful we don’t have to deal with the double-digit inflation that gripped the nation in 1979.

Later that afternoon the board discussed the possibility of state lawmakers increasing the Single Business Tax to deal with falling revenues. The SBT—less than five years old in 1979—will be laid to rest this year, and our current lawmakers are wrestling with all sorts of proposals for replacement business taxes to make sure current revenue declines don’t become far worse.

My memory of Gerald Ford is that of a civil and honest man who served his state and his country admirably.

And while we might associate his administration with partisan bickering (his decision to pardon Nixon famously cost him the election in 1976), the bipartisan show of goodwill toward Ford today harkens back to a more civil time in politics and in our country.

The civility with which Ford led our country at a time of political crisis is a good lesson for today’s politicians.