Vice President of the United States the Twenty-fifth Amendment established a procedure for filling such a vacancy: This procedure has been implemented twice since the amendment came into force. The first instance occurred in 1973 following the October 10 resignation of Spiro Agnew, when Gerald Ford was nominated by President Richard Nixon and confirmed by Congress. The second occurred 10 months later following Ford's August 9, 1974 accession to the presidency upon Nixon's resignation, when Nelson Rockefeller was nominated by President Ford and confirmed by Congress. Had it not been for this new constitutional mechanism, the vice presidency would have remained vacant after Agnew's resignation and
Spiro Agnew of the Korean War. He resigned from Schreibers in 1952, and resumed his legal practice, specializing in labor law. In 1955, Lester Barrett was appointed a judge in Towson, the county seat of Baltimore County. Agnew moved his office there; at the same time he moved his family from Lutherville to Loch Raven, also in Baltimore County. There, he led a typical suburban lifestyle, as president of the local school's PTA, joining the Kiwanis and participating in a range of social and community activities. Historian William Manchester sums up the Agnew of those days: "His favorite musician was Lawrence Welk.