I like to think that most of my blog posts are timeless. (insert laugh here) But today I have a very timely topic and one that is no laughing matter, the passing this year of Barbara Bush (April) and George H.W. Bush. There are very few politicians or other powerful and prominent figures who can come near to the moral and ethical record of this amazing couple, both of whom I had the opportunity to meet. Allow me to mourn their loss by sharing my experience of them. The meetings were on two separate occasions three years apart, both during Rotary World Congresses which I organized with a highly skilled team of staff members.
I met Barbara Bush in 1982 at the Rotary World Congress in Dallas, Texas. Her husband was Vice-President to Ronald Reagan and she had developed a keen interest in illiteracy and its connection to poverty and criminality. She saw that literacy in the US was falling from a high of 99% some years earlier down to 72% at the time she was speaking. She saw prisons becoming overcrowded and believed that better education could cause more people to get jobs and stay away from a life of crime. She spoke passionately on this topic and beseeched those in attendance and their fellow-Rotarians who could not be there to take up the cause of empowering everyone to read and write.
The first physical sign that she would be attending was several days before the speech when Secret Service members started coming around and taking an interest in all manner of things. The spouse of a high elected official was not considered a likely candidate for assassination since there is no line of succession to political office. But the Secret Service doesn’t let up because of unlikelihood.
I had several meetings with her speech writer to hone the message to our audience. And then on the day of the event, I greeted her offstage and advised her of the onstage protocols and logistics. She was of average height but always seemed taller to me. Perhaps it was her white hair and her strong presence with chin held high at all times, a beautiful mix of pride and compassion.
Three years later the Rotary Congress was held in Kansas City. President Reagan was asked to speak and we came within a week of the start of the congress without a firm decision. I was quite nervous about the program for the day he was invited. If he didn’t come, could we get a suitable replacement speaker on such short notice? Unlikely.
Six days before the program on which Ronald Reagan was to be the headliner, I was informed by a member of my staff that the hotel right across the street from the convention center had to cancel all the bookings for Rotarians on one floor of their hotel. I was ready to go to battle with the hotel to enforce our contract until they said in a low voice, “It is for Secret Service personnel.”
Suddenly things started looking up and I placed a call to the White House Scheduling Office to ask for confirmation that Reagan would be speaking. They informed me that State business made his attendance impossible, but Vice President George Herbert Walker Bush would be representing him and announcing a new White House initiative to encourage volunteerism, a topic they knew we would like because it sits at the heart of the Rotary organization.
The Washington invasion was nothing like that when Barbara Bush appeared. Security was very strong since President Reagan had been shot in an unsuccessful assassination attempt in 1981. So, we had airport-style metal detectors at all entrances to the arena. The Green Room where the Vice President would wait until he was called to stage had to be served by a circular driveway in and out of the building so his motorcade would never have to back up their limousines in case of a quick exit.
The scheduling people were the hardest to please. Since this was a major policy announcement, there would be live TV coverage, so lighting was enhanced. The onstage protocols ended up being extensively negotiated. In what order would the VP shake hands with those already on stage? And what about the lectern signage? We always had a Rotary logo. We decided after much discussion that right before the VP was introduced a stage hand would remove the Rotary logo and replace it with the official seal of the Vice-President so the TV cameras would see him speaking with his own seal on the lectern. It was obvious that Mr. Bush had nothing to do with these matters. It was standard White House procedure.
The event took place in an arena. On the arena floor we had built a stage (about 3 feet high) with screens for live video behind and other decoration like the flags of all 172 nations which had Rotary clubs.
The stronger the light that was focused on the stage for the TV cameras, the darker the rest of the arena looked. Even at the base of the stage it was quite dark. Serving as Stage Manager, I was cleared to be at the base of the stage, accompanied only by a cadre of Secret Service looking intently into the crowd for any untoward movement. With my two-way headset I was intent on looking at what was happening on stage. Well, the introductions went perfectly and the speech was well received. The Vice President would leave the stage immediately after finishing his remarks.
The Vice President strode confidently toward the stage left side from which I was watching. But that is not where the steps were. They were farther upstage. And it looked to me like the Vice President was about to walk off the stage and probably break a leg. And I was the only one who knew it.
So as he came near I reached up, signaled him to stop, took his hand and led him to where the stairs were and he descended like it was planned that way. As he came down the stairs, I noticed that a few of the Secret Service agents suddenly were very interested in me and that they had their hands already resting on the holstered weapons!
Mr. Bush now realized that he had been saved from a disaster. He took my hand again, this time to shake it and as he walked off I heard him say to one of his people, “Make sure we have his name and address”.
On the next day by courier I received a letter on the Vice-President’s personal stationery.
I will not attempt to summarize all the achievements of George H.W. and Barbara Bush. The media has been full of obituaries. I only want to say “Thank you both for your service. You will be missed.”
