The presidential primaries preceding the Election of 1992 were just cranking up when word came the incumbent, George H.W. Bush, would come to ORNL on Feb. 19 for the signing of a cooperative R&D agreement between the Laboratory, Y-12 and Coors Structural Ceramics Company.
Word of the impending arrival elicited a wave of short-notice preparations. Construction began on a temporary stage at the High Flux Isotope Reactor, but the venue was changed at the last minute to the streetside fronting the High Temperature Materials Laboratory, making ORNL's newest research facility the backdrop for the Lab's second presidential visit.
The only U.S. president to visit ORNL previously had been Jimmy Carter, whose trip to Oak Ridge included a speech at the Lab on May 22, 1978. John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson had toured ORNL in 1959, before either was president. Gerald Ford visited as a congressman in 1965. A Manhattan Project chemist, George Parker, recalled planning for a wartime visit by President Roosevelt that included making sure doorways were wide enough for a wheelchair to pass. That visit never happened.
VIP visits normally spark a quick sprucing up, which is an indicator in itself that a special event is on the horizon. "You know something's up when they're mowing the grass in February," it was observed that winter in '92.
Lab staff members were invited to see the president. The viewing area was Southside Drive and the Bldg. 4508 lawn, with the HTML as a backdrop. First, though, spectators had to pass through security, which was a metal detector set up in Bldg. 4508.
Charlie Kuykendall, who led the Laboratory Protection Division at the time, remarked that the device detected quite a bit of metal, from suspender clips to hand tools to, especially, cutlery.
"I was astounded that so many people would show up to see the president with that many knives," Kuykendall observed. "But I was seeing the result of 1,000 people passing through a metal detector."
Kuykendall said Secret Service staff had a reputation for abrasiveness, but he found the Oak Ridge detail to be sharp, cooperative and accepting of the assistance Lab Protection offered. The Lab's medical director, Seaton Garrett, accompanied the motorcade from the presidential helicopter's landing site in the 7600 area to the HTML site, along with other Lab support staff.
VIPs at the chilly ceremony included Energy Secretary James Watkins, Secretary of Education (and former governor) Lamar Alexander and three U.S. Congressmen -- Jimmy Quillen, Jimmy Duncan and Don Sundquist. White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater was spotted by the crowd and acknowledged their hellos before ducking back into the HTML. Network news media also attended: The previous day's New Hampshire primary results, which Bush won handily, were still close enough to raise some eyebrows.
The CRADA was an agreement to combine ORNL's expertise in materials science with Y-12's machining and inspection to work with Coors. The president praised the agreement, citing efforts of industry and government institutions to bring R&D "out of the labs and into the marketplace."
Just over a quarter century later, Alexander is a sitting U.S. senator and Duncan is still a U.S representative. Sundquist would be elected governor. Bush would lose the election to Bill Clinton, but remained an elder statesman and was the father of the 43rd president, George W. Bush, who succeeded Clinton and would visit ORNL himself in 2004. And moving technology to the marketplace remains a key ORNL mission.
