Gerald Ford — 38th President (1974–1977)

**Gerald Ford** was the only president never elected as either president or vice president. He was appointed VP after Agnew's resignation and became president after Nixon's. His defining act — pardoning Nixon — cost him the 1976 election but may have saved the country from a constitutional crisis that would have consumed years. Ford was decent, humble, and steady at a moment when the country needed exactly that.