Christopher B. Emery - White House Usher: Stories from the Inside

Copyright 2018 by Christopher B. Emery

PRINT ISBN: 978-1-63492-656-0
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-63492-7-482
MOBI ISBN: 978-1-63492-7-499

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, contact the author, subject: Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the email address below.

Christopher B. Emery
Naples, Florida

Email:
www.WhiteHouseUsher.com

Ordering Information:

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Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data
Emery, Christopher B.
White House Usher: Stories from the Inside / Christopher B. Emery
p. cm.
1. The main category of the bookHistory HF0000.A0 A00 2010
299.000 00dc22 2010999999

Second Edition - October 2020

Dedicated to:

Katie Brooke

Waverly Grace

Parker Thomas

And

Isabelle

There are many I would like to thank for their encouragement, support, reviews, suggestions, debates, comments, and more. Most of all, when at one point I had decided to put my project on permanent hold, my partner Isabelle offered me the inspiration I needed to complete this. To you, Isabelle, I will always be grateful.

A man I look up to, Gary J. Walters, is the last of the truly great, qualified individuals to be a White House Chief Usher. Gary consistently performed at the highest level, superbly serving four presidents. Thankfully, he once saw something in a 28-year-old IT guymeand changed my life forever by providing a rare opportunity to work inside the White House, the home of Americas First Family.

Thanks to my sanity checkersfamily members, friends, and close colleagues who reviewed excerpts and provided feedback: Ariane Emery, Isabelle Hauswald, Edwin Huizinga, Keith Zumbrun, Al Salas, Scott Paton, Ian Komorowski, Denzil Thies, Andria Leo, Tam Stephanadis, and Brent Brookhart. Thank you all!

I acknowledge Angela Hoy of Booklocker.com who always quickly responded to my hundreds of emails and thousands of questions. And my editor Barbara McNichol was beyond wonderful in all aspects of helping me with this effort.

Thank you to Jean Becker, chief of staff to President George H. W. Bush. From her days in the White House until today, Jean has always been wonderfully helpful and supportive to me.

And finally, I dedicate this book to the individuals who inspire me beyond anyone else: my daughter Katie Brooke and my grandchildren Waverly Grace and Parker Thomas. This book is for you and future generations who will follow.

Cover Photo, Left to Right: Presidents Bush and Carter, author Chris Emery, Presidents Clinton, and Ford. Photo taken in the Red Room at the White House on Sept 13, 1993, day before the four Presidents signed the North America Free Trade Agreement. (Official White House photograph)

Back cover photo credit: Chaz Deausen

Just the other day someone asked me what it was like to live in the White House with so much staff around all the time. Did you ever have a minute to yourself? Did you feel smothered by attention? Was there no sense of privacy?

My answer was immediate and heartfelt: We loved the wonderful White House staff. They were like family who somehow knew when we needed them but then magically disappeared when they knew we wanted to be alone. (Come to think of it, my children and grandchildren are not always so good at the appearing and disappearing business.)

The point being, they made life just about perfect every single day. Even when the problems of the country and the world weighed heavily on Georges mind and shoulders, he knew he could come upstairs at the White House and feel at home.

At the center of the household activity is the White House Ushers Office, which oversees the 90-plus White House residential staff, including the plumbers and electricians, the chefs and the florists, the butlers and the housekeepers, and so many more. It is the ushers job to keep everyone and everything running well and running on time. That would include the president and first lady.

With his book White House Usher: Stories from the Inside, former usher Chris Emery gives his readers a peek inside what happens upstairs at the White House. Chriss anecdotes tell a rich story of how Americas house really is the first families home. I loved my trip down memory lane.

He even tells a few stories on himselfincluding the night I caught him racing around upstairs in FDRs wheelchair.

Like so many of the White House staff, Chris became like family and deserves credit for being my very first computer guru. Even after we left town, I would call Chris and ask him to solve my computer issues. (And there were many.)

Enjoy your peek inside.

Barbara Bush

Ive had a unique career, I spent 42 years in Information Technology, including 29 years with the federal government where I served as a Chief Information Officer at two agencies, a Chief Enterprise Architect at two agencies, and the head of software applications development. My start in the government is a rather unique story.

Heres what I mean. From 1986 until 1994, I served in the White House where three consecutive American presidents knew me on a first-name basis, and Ive met seven of them: Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and Bush. Daily, I encountered cabinet members, world leaders, movie stars, and professional athletes. No, Im not a celebrity nor a big-time contributor, and Im not a member of the media. Rather, Im just average man who was in the right place at the right time.

Specifically, I served as a White House Usher. I had daily interaction with the president and first lady to ensure their needs were met for White House activities and events. As a White House Usher, I worked closely with the first family on everything from personal items to bringing up-to-date technology into the executive mansion; from managing events and ceremonies to the historic preservation of the executive mansion and its surrounding 18 acres. Primarily, I made sure the White House safeguarded the privacy of members of the first family while making them feel at home.

Starting in January 1986, I was busy automating the White House Travel Office (which later became infamous). In 1987, I coordinated the press setup in the White House for the Reagan/Gorbachev Summit. In 1993, President Clinton invited me to partake in a group photo with four presidents (I used the photo for my book cover). A year after that, I helped Mrs. Barbara Bush use her laptop computer and, well, more about that later.

After my eight years in the White House, I worked at the opposite end of Pennsylvania Avenue. I routinely walked through the historic corridors of the U.S. Capitol building, passing members of Congress and their staffs. I remember seeing Senator Ted Kennedy, his head down looking serious. Early one morning on the Senate subway, seated directly across from me was Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. We practically touched knee-to-knee as we each stared intently into our Blackberry devices until we finally looked up and smiled at each other. Late one evening, again riding the Senate subway, there was only one other rider and they occupied the car directly in front of meSenator Hillary Clinton.