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Ford better; hospital discharge expectedFormer president 'sitting in a chair reading his newspapers'
 Gerald Ford had a stroke while attending the 2000 Republican National Convention. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSRANCHO MIRAGE, California (CNN) -- Former President Gerald Ford continues to improve from his bout with pneumonia and is expected to be released Thursday from a California hospital, his spokeswoman said. He "is responding to treatment and shows improvement every day," his chief of staff, Penny Circle, said Wednesday in a statement. "He is sitting in a chair reading his newspapers," she said. Ford, 92, was admitted Saturday to Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage. Ford's longtime pastor, the Rev. Robert Certain, said the former president had been in good health and went swimming last week. Certain, the pastor of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in Palm Desert, California, said Ford has been actively following the news in recent months and appeared physically and mentally sound. Ford was hospitalized briefly at the same facility in December for unspecified tests. (Full story) The former college football star also was hospitalized in 2003 after suffering from a dizzy spell while playing golf in 96-degree heat, and he suffered a mild stroke while attending the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He became the 38th president of the United States in August 1974, when the Watergate scandal forced Richard Nixon to resign. He had become vice president in October 1973 after Nixon's original running mate, Spiro Agnew, resigned and pleaded no contest to bribery, conspiracy and extortion charges. Ford, a Republican, is the only person to have held the office of president without having been elected to the presidency or vice presidency. He ran for president in 1976, after finishing Nixon's term, but lost to former Georgia Gov. Jimmy Carter. Ford had assumed the Oval Office with the words: "My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over." He then made pardoning Nixon one of his first acts, which some blame for dooming his 1976 campaign. Ford said that he pardoned Nixon because the cloud of drawn-out impeachment proceedings would have prevented the country from tending to more important business. Athlete and representativeBefore taking the country's helm, Ford was a gifted athlete and played for national championship football teams at the University of Michigan in 1932 and 1933. He was offered spots on two professional teams -- the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers -- but instead took a position as a boxing and football coach at Yale University, where he was admitted to the law school in 1938. Ford joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1942 and had a brush with death during World War II when he was almost swept overboard during a typhoon in the Philippine Sea in 1944. After Ford's discharge as a lieutenant commander in 1946, his stepfather, a Republican leader, encouraged him to take on GOP Rep. Bartel Jonkman of Michigan for the nomination to the U.S. House of Representatives. He won the nomination and later the general election and took congressional office in 1948. Ford proved popular with his constituents, who re-elected him 12 times between 1949 and 1973. His inclusion among the "Young Turks" -- a group of young, progressive House Republicans who wanted to oust the older GOP leadership -- propelled him to top House positions and earned him a spot on the Warren Commission, tasked with investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Ford is the last living member of the Warren Commission. CNN's Dan Simon contributed to this report. 
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