Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, has died. He was 93.
"My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age," Ford's wife, Betty, said in a statement. "His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country."
Gerald Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments including an angioplasty in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
He performed a seminar on "Humor and the Presidency" at the Gerald R. Ford Museum and Library in Michigan, and wrote a book with same title from his office in Thunderbird Country Club in Rancho Mirage, California, in the 1980s.
But Ford, who died peacefully at his home in Rancho Mirage, Calif., at the age of 93, during his brief presidency in the 1970s, put a stake in the heart of the two most troubling and divisive crises facing America at the time -- the Watergate scandals and the War in Vietnam.
Ford is expected to be laid to rest on the grounds of his presidential museum in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The museum has announced that its lobby will be open 24 hours a day starting today and until further notice, while the rest of the museum will be closed during this period.
President Bush plans to attend the funeral.
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