Bonners Ferry Local Guide including all of Boundary County Idaho

North Idaho remembers President Ford

Sunday, December 17, 2006; CDAP

As America mourns the death of an ex-president, a North Idaho inventor remembers how he sneaked Gerald Ford away from a private party when he was being ganged up on by a group of women. Forrest Bird is a Sandpoint doctor enshrined in the inventor's hall of fame for developing the first reliable mass-produced mechanical ventilators for acute and chronic cardiopulmonary care. But in August 1990, he rescued the 38th president from an uncomfortable situation at the Lake Pend Oreille home of a German industrialist, and spirited him away to his Sandpoint workshop. "I had met him a number of times," said Bird, now 85. But he said when Ford's time was being monopolized by a group of women at an exclusive gathering thrown by Klaus Groenke, the former president asked if he could get away. - Full Story