Claremore Man Remembers His Time With President Ford

An Oklahoma man is fondly remembering the time he spent as a member of Gerald Ford's cabinet. The Claremore resident had the chance to get to know the President better than most. He shares some of

Tuesday, January 2nd 2007, 9:27 pm

By: News On 6

An Oklahoma man is fondly remembering the time he spent as a member of Gerald Ford's cabinet. The Claremore resident had the chance to get to know the President better than most. He shares some of those memories with the News on 6 reporter Heather Lewin.

Kent Frizzell first went to Washington in 1972 to work for Richard Nixon. As Assistant Attorney General with the Justice Department, Frizzell and his wife were frequent companions of the Nixonâ€™s. Then suddenly the nation fell into crisis and the reins were handed over to a new leader.

"Here's a man who had no guile about him, no hidden agendas then by circumstance, happenstance almost, he became Vice-President, then President," Kent Frizzell, former Acting Secretary of the Interior said.

Frizzell soon became acting Secretary of the Interior, working hand in hand with Gerald Ford a man who may not have wanted the top job, but whom Frizzell says brought all the right qualities to the table.

"Faithful to his country, was faithful to his wife, got elected to 12 terms in the house of representatives very few people hold that kind of record," Frizzell said. "He's been a leader from the very start, captain of the football team two years in a row, he went to Yale law school, he was very straightforward, he was honest and was a great representative of that generation."

He says Ford saw the nation through a crisis, making decisions and standing by them like pardoning Nixon after Watergate.

"He did not get re-elected probably because of that and other decisions he might have made, but he called them like he saw them, I'm convinced of that. He did not let politics interfere if he thought it was the wrong way to go," said Frizzell.

Now retired, Frizzell enjoys looking back on his days in the White House, working with a President he says didn't get enough credit until his death.

"Now you're hearing some of the good things about Gerald Ford that many Americans didn't know until now," Frizzell said.

In 1999, President Ford was awarded both the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. In addition to helping the country heal after Watergate and Vietnam, he was known for his lifelong opposition to racial discrimination.