As the Democrats are attempting to make an issue of Gerald Ford's probity, the community that helped shape him stands as a kind of character witness. Just as Plains, Ga. (pop. 683), is typical of the Deep South, small-town style, Grand Rapids, Mich. (pop. 195,000), epitomizes many of the enduring qualities that typify the Midwest. TIME Detroit Bureau Chief Edwin Reingold visited Grand Rapids, while White House Correspondent Strobe Talbott talked with Ford's friends from his home town on the White House staff. Their report:
The staff at Grand Rapids' solid old Pantlind hotel is buzzing with excitement because the Secret Service agents are coming to check it out for Jerry Ford's visit. He plans to stay there when he returns to vote on Election Day. In the hotel coffee shop, a visitor can buy a religious record or a book of Bible stories—or a tumbler emblazoned with Ford's image. Route 131, which cuts through downtown, was christened the Gerald R. Ford Freeway in 1975, and the President's name also adorns the gym at the Grand Rapids Community College. Despite the uproar over Ford's alleged campaign fund manipulations, his supporters in Grand Rapids shrugged off the charges and were hanging tough with their hero. In the heart of the city, Republican women work a phone bank—they expect to make 50,000 calls by Election Day—under a banner identifying them as "Jerry's Angels." Croons one: "We don't have any trouble getting volunteers. People walk in off the street. Everybody knows Jerry Ford."
Indeed everybody does, although he and Betty have not lived in Michigan's second city in almost 28 years. Some old-timers remember him as the towheaded youngster who played center on the South High football team. Others recall him as the industrious fellow earning $2 a week plus lunches waiting on tables during the Depression. Mrs. Ella Koeze Weed, an early supporter of Ford's, recalls his boldness; he dared to importune her with the risque wolf whistle. "I used to think, 'Well, that big kid in the dirty coveralls has a nerve—whistling at me like that!' "
During his 25 years in Congress representing western Michigan's Fifth District, which includes Grand Rapids, Ford kept in close touch through frequent trips home. "Sometimes he would give a breakfast speech and then fly to Washington for a crucial vote and return for an evening meeting," recalls Maury DeJonge, a newspaperman who has covered Ford for many years. Many summers Ford spent two weeks crisscrossing his district in a trailer to talk with home folks. He was regarded as an effective Congressman, though he seldom bagged rich federal projects for his district. His straight-shooting constituents would have thought it a bit wasteful if he had done more.
While he was House minority leader, the National Endowment for the Arts helped bankroll a huge Alexander Calder stabile, which was erected in front of city hall and appears in many renditions—of widely varying artistic quality—on everything from sanitation trucks to official city stationery.