President Gerald R. Ford, who picked up the pieces of Richard Nixon’s scandal-shattered White House, has died. He was 93, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,” Betty Ford said in a brief statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage, Calif. “His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”

The statement didn’t say where Mr. Ford died or list a cause of death. Mr. Ford had battled pneumonia in January 2006 and underwent two heart treatments — including an angioplasty — in August at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

President Bush remembered Mr. Ford as a “gentleman who reflected the best in America’s character” and helped heal a nation divided by Watergate.

“He assumed power in a period of great division and turmoil. For a nation that needed healing, and for an office that needed a calm and steady hand. Gerald Ford came along when we need him most,” Mr. Bush said during a televised statement at his Texas ranch where he is staying for the holidays.

Funeral arrangements were to be announced Wednesday.

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