Ron Nessen

Who is Ron Nessen?

Ronald Harold Nessen is an American government official who served as White House Press Secretary for President Gerald Ford from 1974 to 1977. He replaced Jerald terHorst, who resigned in the wake of President Ford's pardon of former president Richard Nixon.

Prior to joining the Ford administration, Nessen served as a Washington, D.C. correspondent for NBC News. On the day of Ford's succession to the presidency, August 9, 1974, he provided commentary for the inauguration. He also covered the President in a report broadcast that evening on NBC Nightly News. In that piece, Nessen reported on the appointment of terHorst, the man whom he himself would succeed one month later.

Nessen, who also served NBC News as a war correspondent during the Vietnam War, was seriously wounded by grenade fragments while on patrol outside Pleiku in the Central Highlands in July 1966.