President Gerald Ford was sitting right next to me at the head table. It was June 8, 1988, and President Ford was the keynote speaker at the GulfAmerica Conference in Houston, Texas. We were eating a fish dinner together and I had just squeezed lemon on my seafood. I looked over at President Ford and he was rubbing his eye. Apparently some of my lemon juice had inadvertently gone out of the side of the lemon and hit Mr. Ford in the face. He looked at me and said, “ Michael, these things happen. Don’t worry about it. No harm done.” President Ford was a true diplomat and he turned a potentially very embarrassing moment into a kind and healing experience. He went on to say that evening that he felt that the most important issue of our times was the issue of healing the Middle East conflict.

Gerald Ford, our longest living president passed away on Tuesday at the age of 93. He was the only non-elected president of the United States and served less than 1,000 days in that capacity in the mid-1970s. He will always be remembered as the “healing” president, as he replaced the resigning President Richard Nixon in 1974 at a time when the very essence of the American political system was in question. He later pardoned Nixon for his crimes and probably lost the 1976 election to Jimmy Carter due to that decision. However, any other decision at that time may have led to complete chaos in the American political system.

My first contact with Ford was when he served as a congressman from Michigan. He was from Grand Rapids, Michigan and one of his very dear friends was Bill Azkoul, a Grand Rapids attorney who was a friend of mine and an activist in Arab-American politics. In my capacity as a board member, and later executive director, of the National Association of Arab Americans, I was charged with meeting political leaders in the US to discuss Arab American concerns. Azkoul arranged a meeting for me with then Congressman Ford and we discussed various issues.

Ford told me then that he had great respect for the Arab American community in the United States and he had gained that respect largely through his dealings with Azkoul. They had known each other for many years and Azkoul had introduced Ford to many other Arab Americans and issues of importance to Arab Americans.

Ford told me at the time that without people like Azkoul, he and other members of Congress would have very little insight into “a more balanced view on Middle East issues.” He gave great credit to Azkoul and his other Arab American friends for his learning that there were really two sides of the issue regarding the Middle East conflict.

In 1988, when the first GulfAmerica conference was held in Houston, the thrust of that event was to bring better understanding between the Gulf, the rest of the Arab world and the United States. Up until that time, it was difficult to have someone as prestigious as President Ford address a conference that was perceived as “pro-Arab.” Ford had never spoken at a conference of this kind and most of his advisors had told me that he was very unlikely to accept the invitation to speak at this event.

Other speakers at the conference included Prince Mohammed bin Faisal Al-Saud, Abdullah Al-Ghanim, Hamed Al-Zamil Mohamed Al-Hamrani, Abdullah Dabbagh, Abdul Aziz Jarbou, Abdul Aziz Al-Dukheil, Wahib Binzagr, Ismail Abu-Dawood and Abdullah Alireza of Saudi Arabia.

Major American speakers in addition to President Ford included Gov. John Connally of Texas, Mayor Kathy Whitmore of Houston, Gov. Victor Atiyeh of Oregon, US Secretary of Agriculture John Block, Walter Fauntroy of Washington D.C., Pete McCloskey of California, George McGovern of South Dakota, and Charles Schotta of Washington, D.C.

The conference was very successful in bringing better understanding between the US and the Gulf as well as enhancing business relations between the two regions. It was the largest US-Arab business gathering in history and generated millions of dollars of direct business between the US and the Gulf. However, it was the participation of President Ford that truly distinguished it from other similar events.

After initially hearing from President Ford’s advisers in the negative regarding his involvement in the conference, I contacted Azkoul to get his advice. He told me that he felt that President Ford would attend if he got the facts about the conference directly from a friend rather than advisers who often only wanted “one side” addressed when it came to Middle East issues. Azkoul called Ford and the next day Ford called me and graciously accepted the invitation. After his acceptance, everything else fell into place.

The evening of June 8, 1988, ended on a high note. President Ford looked out over the hundreds of people in the audience and said, “Tonight, we have all come together to share our thoughts and concerns with each other. Your region of the world is so misunderstood by the people of the United States. I pledge that I will do whatever I can to correct those misunderstandings and help to present a true picture of the importance of our relationship. And we will start together tonight.”

President Ford was a man who always did his best to help to build bridges of understanding and bring healing wherever he could.