Historical help: Anyone remember a Ford visit in the late 1980s?


Our assertion in a recent LOG e-news that Friday’s visit by former President Clinton is the first to campus by a former or sitting U.S. president has been challenged. A UW-Green Bay alumnus and historian who attended here in the mid- to late-1980s called to say he vividly remembers seeing Gerald Ford on campus at a relatively small gathering on the first floor of the Cofrin Library. He described it not as a major rally, but as a meeting of perhaps 20 supporters, a few Secret Service agents, and perhaps a media availability involving Ford and a young woman running for Congress. It took place in what was then the lounge or large classroom nearest the library elevators. (By our reckoning it would have most likely been GOP Senate candidate Susan Engeleiter of Brookfield, who in 1988 ultimately lost a 52-48 race to Herb Kohl for William Proxmire’s vacant seat.) Anyway, we thanked the caller for his time, pointed out we weren’t entirely wrong — Clinton is still the first elected president to visit UWGB, and the first to headline a public event — and said we’d put it out to see if it jogs anybody else’s memory. Ford only. Please… no W sightings at the Ratt, Ike playing No. 8 at Shorewood, or Carter at the Bayfest corn tent. There are limits to our credulity.