Walking With President Ford at a Birmingham golf course

By Staff
Bob Jaques of Hartselle, Guest Columnist
It was a slow but penetrating rain that fell on the spectators and celebrity golfers at Pine Tree Country Club in Birmingham, Ala. The date was April 11, 1978, and the event was a foursome of celebrities playing for charity.
The four celebrities were former President Gerald Ford, Alabama Coach Paul “Bear” Bryant, Alabama president David Matthews and golfing legend Arnold Palmer.
Due to the light falling rain, less than half of the 3,000 people who bought tickets showed up to watch the event. A friend of mine from Indiana and I bought tickets and went to the golf match. Since my friend traveled a long distance, we decided a little rain would not stop us and so we went.
With my camera at my side, I joined the spectators to watch the golfers as they played in the fairways of the various holes. My intention was to take candid shots of the players.
I was excited because it is not often a person has an opportunity to see famous people play golf only an hour from home.
On one hole, as President Ford was teeing off, the rain started to pick up and my raincoat was becoming saturated and uncomfortable. I noticed a man on the edge of the crowd around the tee box with a very large umbrella standing by himself. I eased up just under the back of his umbrella to get out of the rain. Little did I know who belonged to this umbrella!
President Ford finished his drive and worked his way through the crowd to the man with the umbrella, under which I was standing. Startled, I excused myself, but the President said “You’re OK.” and I ended up walking down one fairway with the President as his aide held the umbrella.
Gesturing to the rain, I said to the President, “The weather is not as nice today as your home in Rancho Mirage.” He looked at me and replied with a grin, “You’re right about that!”
I was able to take several candid shots of the President as he played his round of golf.
A couple of days after the game, I sent him a picture with a letter asking him to autograph it for me, and I included copies of all the pictures I took of him for his own use.
A little more than a month later, I received a nice letter from his secretary on his personal stationery with my photo autographed by him. On the bottom of the letter, it said ..“The President is delighted to have the other two snapshots for his personal photo album….”
As I sat in front of the television and watched his funeral in Washington a few weeks ago, I recalled that for a brief moment our two paths had crossed on a rainy day in
Birmingham on a golf course.
He was a gentleman.