Former US President Gerald Ford has died at age 93 at his home in California.
Mr Ford became the 38th US president in 1974 without being elected after Richard Nixon resigned office after the Watergate scandal.
Former US president Gerald Ford in aphotograph taken in 1998
On taking office Mr Ford vowed: "Our long national nightmare is over".
He later pardoned Mr Nixon and his 2 1/2 years in office were not well regarded. He lost the 1976 presidential election to Democrat Jimmy Carter.
The oldest living US president, Mr Ford had been ill and largely out of the public eye for several years. He died shortly before 3 am Irish time last night at his home in Rancho Mirage.
His office made the announcement but gave no cause of death was given.
Funeral services will take place in Washington and Grand Rapids, Michigan, his boyhood home.
Mr Ford's wife Betty, who became famous for her pioneering addiction treatment clinic said in a statement that her husband's "life was filled with love of God, his family and his country".
A former Republican congressman, Mr Ford was the only US president not elected to either the presidency or vice presidency. He was appointed vice president in 1973 after Mr Nixon's vice president, Spiro Agnew, resigned to avoid prosecution on corruption charges.
President George W Bush
He became president when Mr Nixon resigned on August 9th, 1974, to avoid impeachment in the scandal over a politically motivated burglary of Democratic Party offices in the Watergate complex in Washington.
One month later, on September 8th, 1974, Mr Ford stunned the nation and stirred enduring controversy by granting Mr Nixon "a full, free and absolute pardon" for any crime he may have committed in office.
That set the paradoxical pattern for the presidency of this rough-hewn politician who had served 26 years as a congressman from Michigan.
His term included two assassination attempts; the fall of Vietnam; Cambodian seizure of a US freighter, which prompted him to "send in the Marines"; constant fights with Congress.
Critics ridiculed the former Navy officer who served in World War II with barbs such as "he can't walk and chew gum at the same time."
Questions about his grasp of issues surfaced in a televised election campaign debate against Mr Carter when he asserted "there is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe."
He fell just short in his fight to overcome a 30-point Carter polling lead and lost one of the closest elections in US history.
US president George W Bush today paid tribute to Mr Ford saying he was "a great American who gave many years of dedicated service to our country".
"With his quiet integrity, common sense, and kind instincts, president Ford helped heal our land and restored public confidence in the presidency," Mr Bush added.
Mr Ford's pastor, Reverend Robert Certain, said the former president had celebrated Christmas on Monday with his wife and three sons.
Mr Ford is survived by four children and his wife of 58 years, Betty Ford, who won many admirers for her personal battles against breast cancer and prescription drug and alcohol addiction.
He was born Leslie King in Omaha, Nebraska, on July 14th, 1913. After his parents divorced soon after his birth and he took the name of his stepfather, Gerald Ford Sr.
His death leaves three living former presidents including George HW Bush, Mr Carter and Bill Clinton.