FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 1, 2021
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Statement by Mike Ford, chair of the Gerald R. Ford
Presidential Foundation, on the Passing of President Ford’s
Second Secretary of Defense, Donald H. Rumsfeld
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. –– It is with a heavy heart that my family and I learned of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, a good friend, faithful public servant, and long-serving Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation Trustee. The Ford family and many of our Foundation trustees remember Don Rumsfeld as a personally warm but professionally tough advisor and leader. Our father and Secretary Rumsfeld made a good team. They relied on each other’s good judgment at a particularly tough time in American history.
In his book When the Center Held, Secretary Rumsfeld referenced the Mayaguez Incident, America’s last battle in the Vietnam War. It was a turning point for our father because that test forced him “to demonstrate his command at a time of international crisis.”
The New York Times obituary framed Secretary Rumsfeld’s career well: “Encores are hardly rare in Washington, but Mr. Rumsfeld had the distinction of being the only defense chief to serve two nonconsecutive terms: 1975 to 1977 under Mr. Ford, and 2001 to 2006 under Mr. Bush. He also was the youngest, at 43, and the oldest, at 74, to hold the post — first in an era of Soviet-American nuclear perils, then in an age of subtler menace by terrorists and rogue states.”
Our prayers go out to Joyce and all the family of Secretary Rumsfeld. May he Rest In Peace.
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Donald Rumsfeld resources:
- Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, Retired Trustee
- 2013 Remarks at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum for his book Rumsfeld’s Rules
- 2013 Gerald R. Ford Oral History Project
- 2011 Remarks at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum for his book Known and Unknown
