ES Gerald R. Ford is not forgotten.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- Andrew Guy wasn't planning to do much more than hang out with friends during his winter break from school. The death of a president changed all that.

Next Tuesday, 15-year-old Andrew will join hundreds of other area Boy Scouts to honor one of their own -- Gerald R. Ford -- who throughout his 93 years never forgot the positive impact scouting had on his life.

According to a funeral plan in which Ford himself had a hand, Boy Scouts will line the route leading to the museum that bears the president's name. They will stand in solemn tribute to a man who epitomized the high values of scouting.

Details still were being sketched out as to the exact role the Scouts will play. What is known is that more than 1,000 Eagle Scouts will be invited to line the route that Ford's casket takes to the Gerald R. Ford Museum.

Another contingent of Scouts -- Eagle and otherwise -- will rotate as part of a color guard inside the museum when Ford's body lies in public repose for a 24-hour period next Tuesday and Wednesday.

``The family has asked that Eagle Scouts line the pathway to the museum," said Michael Sulgrove, executive director of the Gerald R. Ford Council of the Boy Scouts of America. The council represents nearly 30,000 Scouts in 12 Michigan counties.

``We hope to start sending out e-mails and letters as soon as we have the full information," said Sulgrove, who emphasized that participating Scouts will be in full uniform, no matter their age.

``We're selling uniforms hot and heavy here," said Sulgrove, noting the general plan to involve Scouts in Ford's funeral has been known for more than a year.

Andrew Guy is part of Troop 215 -- the same that Ford belonged to when he made Eagle in 1927 -- and whose Scoutmaster is Andrew's father, Gregory.

``For our troop and the boys," Gregory Guy said of the eight young men in his charge, "this is once in a lifetime."

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Four hundred uniformed Eagle Scouts from around the country gathered in Grand Rapids Tuesday afternoon to pay tribute to one of their own.

Boy Scouts from ages 60 to 16 lined Pearl Street to say goodbye to former President Gerald R. Ford, himself an Eagle Scout, as they waited for the motorcade to pass en route to the Gerald R. Ford Museum.

"It's kind of a significant opportunity for the boys to pay tribute to the president," said Clare South, 60, of Holland, an Eagle Scout and committee chairman for Zeeland's Troop 24.

Ford became an Eagle Scout in 1927, and he upheld its principles in office, said Michael Sulgrove, Scout executive for the Gerald R. Ford Regional Council of the Boy Scouts of America in Grand Rapids.

"In all the eulogies, they keep talking about how the country was in a state of chaos and turmoil and how providential it was that Jerry Ford was such a man of character. Where do you think he learned that character? ... I think of the 12 parts of the Scout law," Sulgrove said.

He said the number of Eagle Scouts who could take part in the tribute had to be limited to 400 because of security concerns, otherwise, "we'd have had far more."

They came from Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and elsewhere, Sulgrove said.

"We've got guys who got their Eagle Scout 50 years ago out there and guys who got their Eagle Scout a week ago," he said.

Scouting was an important part of Ford's life, and Sulgrove said the Ford family insisted on having Scouts at each of the ceremonies honoring the past president -- from California to Washington to Grand Rapids.

Ford was the first Eagle Scout to become an American president.

"Being from Michigan, he's Michigan's president; it was only right to come down," said Jamie Callahan, a 35-year-old Eagle Scout from Traverse City who was among the throngs of people standing outside the museum Tuesday afternoon.

"The words that come to mind, for me, when I think of President Ford: He's a servant leader," he said.

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