SEAN BOSTON
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Steve Ford, the youngest son of former President Gerald Ford, is the latest to speak as part of the Dillon Lecture Series on Tuesday at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
Ford talked about several different topics at his press conference before the lecture itself, including what it was like spending two-plus years in the White House, his acting career, life as a rancher, and dealing with alcoholism.
The 18-year-old at the time, who had just graduated from high school and was getting ready to head to college, was now the son of the President of the United States after Richard Nixon resigned from office in August 1974.
"My dad was a congressman for most of my childhood," Ford said. "It wasn't until he became Vice President that things changed. All of a sudden, it got elevated to a new level in 1973. He was only Vice President for about 10 months; we didn't have secret service during that period. It wasn't until he became President in August of 1974 that we got secret service, and then it changed. Luckily, my 10 secret service guys were all in their late 20s, so they kind of remembered what it was like being an 18-year-old kid."
Ford said life changed, and he became a little more defensive once his dad took over as President.
"This would be something I didn't think was a good thing, but you almost had to do it," Ford said. "Because all of a sudden now you had all these people wanting something from you that you didn't know, so you had people approaching you. Thank God we were old enough that we had established friendships, so we weren't looking to go out and add a whole bunch of new friends. Overall, to be blessed in that way, to be able to live in the nation's home, the White House, that was just a real joy and a real treat. It's pretty government housing. It's temporary because we were only there for two-and-a-half years. To live in the White House, to be there; everything on the wall is historical from Jefferson, Washington, and Lincoln; you're living in a museum basically."
Although Ford didn't get to spend a lot of time in the White House while his dad was in office, he did have one favorite spot.
"The third floor of the White House is where the kids live, the second floor is where mom and dad lived, and then the first floor is where the Red Room, the Green Room, the East Room, all the diplomatic areas. I think the favorite place for me was up on the third floor; they have an area called the Solarium; it's kind of a sunroom; it was probably the most relaxed."
He then went on to talk about one of the fun memories he had with a friend in the White House.
"I probably shouldn't tell this story," Ford said while laughing. "One of the first nights we moved to the White House, remember I'm an 18-year-old kid, I called one of my best friends, his name was Kevin, and told him he had to come see this place. He comes over, we're up on the third floor, and back in 1974, stereo equipment was huge. We decided it'd be a good idea to take my stereo up to the roof of the White House. You couldn't do that today because of terrorism. We get it up there, and if I remember right, we were playing Led Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven.' It was like Dumb and Dumber on the roof of the White House."
Ford was asked how the son of the President of the United States ended up becoming a rancher.
"I was trying to figure out how I was going to move into the freshman dorm at Duke University with 10 secret service guys with machine guns and radios, and it didn't really have a good feel to it. I walked into dad's office, which was the Oval Office, and said I'm just not ready to go to college yet; I'd like to take a year off. He asked me, 'What are you thinking of doing?' and I told him I had always dreamed about going out west and becoming a cowboy. He was kind of shocked, but mom and dad were great parents because they allowed us kids to kind of go find our hearts. I promised I'd go back to school next year."
Ford ended up falling in love with living on a ranch and becoming a cowboy in the western United States.
"I took my 10 secret service agents, and we headed west to Utah and Montana," Ford said. "I started working on ranches, cowboying, and rodeoing and fell in love with it. That was what I studied in college: animal science, production, nutrition, and beef cattle. I thought I was going to run a ranch, and instead I spent 30-plus years working as an actor."
The acting career kind of happened by accident for Ford.
"I was going to school, and I was rodeoing at the time, and a friend of mine was producing a movie down in Mexico," Ford said. "It was a western, and he needed some people that could fall off horses to do some stunts. It was summer time, so I wasn't taking any classes, and he said he'd pay me to come down and to fall off a horse, so I ended up going to Mexico and spending the summer working. That was a little bit about my introduction into the TV and film business, so yeah, a horse got me my first acting job."
Ford appeared in 16 different movies while also appearing in 23 different TV shows.
Like his mother, former First Lady Betty, Steve also battled alcoholism in his younger life.
"I was in my 30s when I raised my hand and said, 'My name is Steve, and I'm an alcoholic'," Ford said. "The foundation for that was probably first laid back when I was in high school. My disease doesn't care who you are; whether you're an ex-President's son or an actor, it doesn't care. I speak in a lot of halfway houses; I go into prisons and colleges and just try to give back. You would think Betty Ford's son should know better, because my mother 10 years before me raised her hand. That was a life-changing thing for the addiction community, because she somewhat took some of the shame off of this disease."
The last thing Ford touched on in his press conference was how the United States is today, and whether or not the country will get back to its ways of the past.
"I am still optimistic," Ford said. "The pendulum does seem to swing both ways, and you get through these periods, but I'm concerned. I'm concerned people don't reach across the aisle and try to find a compromise and keep things moving in a reasonable fashion. At times I'm concerned about the honesty of our politicians today. They'll say anything to get a vote and that's both sides, Republicans or Democrats. They say things they know they can never get through Congress. They're campaigning for a vote, but not to actually fix the problem. My dad loved being a public servant, and it has to be in your blood."
The next Dillon Lecture Series presenter is Kansas State men's basketball coach Jerome Tang. He will speak Oct. 8.