Due to unforeseen circumstances our original speaker Jeff Rosen is unable to attend. Joining Hank Meijer in this program will be author Richard Norton Smith.
An Evening with Richard Norton Smith, Moderated by Hank Meijer
Ford at the Bicentennial: Lessons For America at 250
Who better to explore the legacy of President Gerald R. Ford than Richard Norton Smith? Author of An Ordinary Man, the definitive biography of our 38th President, Smith will be joined by interlocutor and Foundation trustee Hank Meijer for an evening of lively, thoughtful conversation.
Together they’ll revisit Ford’s leadership during the American Bicentennial of 1976. While in the White House, Ford framed the nation’s anniversary in a moment that demanded steadiness, humility, and trust.
As America approaches its 250th birthday, Smith and Meijer will explore the enduring lessons and bracing questions that Ford’s legacy raises about character, constitutional self-government, and national renewal.
Details on Attending
Where
Ford Presidential Museum
303 Pearl St NW, Grand Rapids, MI 49504
When
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Private Friends of Ford Reception: 5:30 p.m. (For those with Lieutenant Commander membership level and above.)
Program: 6:30 p.m.
Book signing to follow the event.
Program Supporters
In partnership with the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library & Museum and the Secchia Family Foundation, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation is proud to welcome Richard Norton Smith and Hank Meijer to our stage.
Watch the Livestream
RICHARD NORTON SMITH is a nationally recognized authority on the American presidency and a familiar face to viewers of C-SPAN, as well as The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.
Following graduation from Harvard in 1975, he worked as a White House intern and a speech writer for Massachusetts Senator Edward Brooke. In 1979 he went to work for Senator Bob Dole, with whom he collaborated on several volumes of autobiography and political humor.
Between 1987 and 2001, Mr. Smith served as Director of the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum in West Branch, Iowa; the Dwight D. Eisenhower Center in Abilene, Kansas; the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and the Reagan Center for Public Affairs in Simi Valley, California; the Gerald R. Ford Museum and Library in Grand Rapids and Ann Arbor, Michigan respectively.
Much in demand as a speaker, in 2009 Smith was invited by Congress to be one of two historians addressing it on the two hundred anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth. Earlier, millions of television viewers heard him deliver the final eulogy at Gerald Ford’s Michigan funeral, a role he repeated at Betty Ford’s request when she was laid to rest beside her husband in 2011. Twice a year he personally leads historical tours (www.presidentsandpatriots.com) emphasizing American presidents and history rarely found in the text books.
HANK MEIJER is executive chairman of Meijer, Inc, located in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
He joined the family retail business as a grocery clerk at the age of eleven.
After graduating from the University of Michigan he served as editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper in Plymouth, Michigan before rejoining Meijer in 1979 as assistant advertising director.
Hank’s first book, a biography of his grandfather, Hendrik Meijer, appeared in 1985. His second, a biography of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, was published in 2017 by University of Chicago Press.
He is vice chairman of the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation and serves on the executive committees of the Food Marketing Institute and the National Constitution Center.
He is a member of the Mackinac Island State Parks Commission and a trustee of the Kettering Foundation.
