A lot of reflection has taken place regarding Gerald Ford. He is generally praised for being a man of conviction and integrity, having done much in his relatively short tenure as president to restore a national dignity to the United States. I experienced neither his presidency nor much of anything else about him. But many people close to me did. Some of these people had some personal experiences with him, some of which have lead me to admire Ford.

I have spoken before in this blog of the nationally-recognized Boy Scout troop that shaped part of my teen years. Gerald Ford, an Eagle Scout himself, paid a surprise visit to this troop one time and presented 13 boys with their Eagle Scout award. He would later write the forward to a book by my Scoutmaster and write a letter to my troop commenting on "Honor" portion of the Scout Law. This experience has become an anchor point in the history of my troop and helped lead to an additional visit with Ronald Reagan several years later. The Tulsa World newspaper, in their coverage of the life of Gerald Ford, has written several accounts of his visit to Troop 26, one written by a current World reporter who was one of those 13 Eagle Scouts that day. Gerald Ford said that achieving Eagle Scout was his finest accomplishment, despite becoming the world's most powerful leader.

These are a few photos of that visit, taken from the book "In the Words of..." by Bill Shaffer, my Scoutmaster.