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 R. Ford Presidential Museum who was not elected by ballot for his terms as either President or Vice-President. Funds for the construction of the museum were raised from over 14,000 individual donations through the efforts of the Gerald Ford Commemorative Committee, the University of Michigan, the State of Michigan, Kent County, and the City of Grand Rapids. The two-story triangular museum was designed by Marvin DeWinter Associates and built at a cost of $11 million. The museum is one of the highlights in a park complex that includes the Grand Rapids Public Museum along the west bank of the Grand River in downtown Grand