Death and state funeral of Gerald Ford grandchildren came to the museum that night and greeted mourners for several hours. Shortly after noon on January 3, Ford's body was removed from the museum and taken by motorcade to Grace Episcopal Church in East Grand Rapids, where a private funeral service was conducted Thousands of people lined the entire motorcade route to the church. During the service, eulogies were delivered by Donald Rumsfeld (President Ford's White House Chief of Staff and Secretary of Defense), former President Jimmy Carter, Richard Norton Smith (former Director of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum and a close personal friend of
Gerald J. Ford an estimated US$1.75 billion. Gerald J. Ford Gerald J. Ford (born 1944) is an American businessman. Gerald Ford was raised in Pampa, Texas and attended Pampa Senior High School. He graduated from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas in 1966, where he was a member of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity. He received a J.D. from the SMU School of Law in 1969. He is former Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of Golden State Bancorp, Inc., headquartered in San Francisco. It was a holding company for the nation's second largest thrift institution and California's fourth largest bank.