Until it actually occurred, few Americans envisioned as possible, a scandal within the United States Government as deep and wrenching as Watergate turned out to be.

Fortunately, the nation had a leader-in-waiting with the ability, personality and values to dispel the dark clouds of what he himself described as "our long national nightmare."

That skillful leader was Gerald R. Ford, the 38th president of the United States, who died Tuesday at the age of 93 at his home in California.

He always will be remembered in Butler County and elsewhere more for the healing process he shepherded following the resignation of his disgraced predecessor, Richard M. Nixon, than for what he failed to accomplish, especially in terms of the evolving economic troubles of his day, including increasing inflation.

He will be remembered more for helping to heal the nation than for the unhappiness — indeed, anger — he triggered here and elsewhere in pardoning Nixon of all crimes that the 37th president committed while in office.

It still is believed that that pardon cost Ford the election of 1976, but that pardon put Watergate into the past much more quickly than if Nixon's wrongs had continued to preoccupy the nation.

When Nixon left office, it was understood that the ex-president had no immunity from prosecution and that he was vulnerable to a host of criminal charges.

Current Vice President Dick Cheney, who served as Ford's White House chief of staff, provided in 2002 what might be the best assessment of the beginning of the Ford presidency in August 1974.

"Amidst the worst constitutional crisis since the Civil War, thank God for Jerry Ford," Cheney told an interviewer. "He was there when the country needed him. He served superbly under extraordinary circumstances."

The country had grown increasingly uneasy and weary with each new disclosure that sprang forth related to the Watergate break-in and the coverup that followed. Via the televised Watergate hearings, Americans gained a new perspective of their government processes and the safeguards built into it.

Ford taking the oath of office was a refreshing change from the troubling news and suspicion about Nixon that had engulfed the nation for about 18 months.

Quoted in the Butler Eagle of Aug. 9, 1974, the day Ford assumed the presidency, Mrs. Anthony Allegretti of Sarver said she had "all the faith in the world" in Ford and believed he would be "an honest and hard-working president."

That Ford was indeed a hard-working leader who, in the process, projected the ordinary-guy image with old-fashioned virtues, including honesty, proved to be soothing medicine for Americans' desire that their nation be healed.

Despite the view of many Butler County residents at that time that Nixon was a good president despite his Watergate-related mistakes, people here were ready for the change.

Quoted in that Aug. 9, 1974, article, Mrs. Raymond C. Sarver of Butler R. D. 1, said, "I think it (resignation) was the best thing he (Nixon) could have done." As for Ford, she said, "I know he'll try."

Ford did try, and he succeeded.

Butler County and the rest of the nation always will be grateful for his place in the country's history.