Benton Becker, who acted as the liaison between President Gerald Ford and his predecessor, Richard Nixon, during the delicate negotiations that led to Ford’s pardon of Nixon in September 1974, died Aug. 2 at his home in Boynton Beach, Florida. He was 77. The cause was liver cancer, said a son, Brian Becker. Becker was perhaps an unlikely choice to carry out such a high-level mission during one of the most sensitive moments in presidential history.