Video
Of Senator Kennedy and President Wilson Conducting the Boston Pops
[Video]
Edward M. Kennedy by Jack M. Wilson Video Of Senator Kennedy and President Wilson Conducting the Boston Pops [Video]
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Of Senator Kennedy and President Wilson Conducting the Boston Pops [Video] |
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Kennedy and I conduct the Pops at my Inauguration!
(The following are excertps from the "Jack M. Wilson Memoirs." [(c) 2010 ff]
My Inaugurationon May
12, 2005 brought about 2200 persons to Symphony Hall for a concert by the Boston
Pops
, the UMass Marching Band and a small singing group called Rockappella.
The Governor
presided at the ceremony for my
installation, and I presented the President's Medal to Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
The ceremony opened with the UMass Amherst Marching Band
marching into symphony hall. I did
not know how that was arranged, since I had tried to simply add a fan fare
trumpet player to open the Pops in a preceding year and had been told that no
other musician would share the stage with the Pops.
Here was the entire marching band!
My daughters Erikaand Gretchenenjoyed sitting in
the company of Senator Kennedyand his wife
Vicki for the entire performance.
Erika was visibly pregnant with Kiprasat
that time. They were lobbying him vigorously on environmental issues and he
seemed to be enjoying himself.
Gretchen, an environmental engineer for the Chippewa Indian Tribe, took the
lead. Teddy was up to the challenge.
"Gretchen," he said, "You
should meet my nephew Bobby (Bobby Kennedy) who is a leader of the Riverkeeper
organization on the Hudson River."
"Mr. Kennedy," she replied, "I
worked with Bobby on water quality issues in the Hudson River!"
At the end of the concert, Senator Kennedyand I teamed up to conduct the Boston Pops and the UMass Marching
Band in the Stars and Stripes Forever. Keith Lockhart handed the two of us
batons and asked “which of you will be on
the left?” What a silly
question! To my surprise Teddy
insisted that I be on the left and he be on the right.
We got off to a great start conducting together and I thought that I was
holding my own. And then… Teddy
began conducting vigorously while shaking his ample behind that stuck out toward
the audience. The crowd roared, and
I knew I was out of my league. Now I knew what it meant to say “shake that
booty.” At one point, the Conductor
Keith Lockhart, began to square dance with Kennedy and me. We do-si-doed around
the stage while swinging our partners wildly.
Although Senator Kennedy’s
passing on August 26, 2009 was not a surprise to any of us, it was a shock to
all of us. I could not believe
that I would never again get one of Teddy’s patented calls to my cell phone that
always began “Hi Jack, this is Teddy.”
The first time this happened I almost blurted out “Teddy
who?” But, then again his voice
is hard to miss, and there will only be one “Teddy.”
Kennedy Birthday Parties
On a personal note, I was honored to get to know him better
over the previous decade and to have Judi and I get to know him and Vicki as a
couple. His annual birthday parties,
which always ended up with him leading us all in song (often sitting on the
floor), were an incredible experience.
The 2009 birthday party was a bit different because it was done as a
tribute to him at the Kennedy Center with Bill Cosby (UMass Amherst Alum) as the
master of Ceremonies and Barack Obama as surprise song leader.
Judi and I were enjoying a late lunch with Keith and Angie Motley in an
outdoor restaurant on the banks of the Potomac when I noticed that a few
military jets were circling the Kennedy Center.
I pointed out the jets and suggested that I thought that meant that the
President would attend the event. As
the evening unfolded, I was surprised to see that Michelle Obama was sitting
with Vicki and Ted, but that the President was not in attendance.
Judi and I were sitting with the Chairman of the Joint
Chief of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, and his wife, who were interesting
conversational partners for the evening. During the program, Caroline Kennedy broke
up the crowd as she opened her remarks by suggesting, "I
never thought I'd be in a room with so many senators."
This came shortly after her own abortive effort to succeed Hilary Clinton
as the junior Senator from New York.
She then presented the Profiles in Courage award to her uncle.
Other political heavyweights in attendance included Speaker Nancy Pelosi,
Senator Orrin Hatch, Senator Harry Reid, Senator John and Cindy McCain, Rep
Dingell, Colin Powell, and so many others.
While we waited in the security line to get into the event, Judi was
basically leaning on Colin Powell who did not seem to mind at all!
As we neared the end of a spectacular evening of volunteer
performances by some of the world’s greatest musicians, Bill Cosby came out on
stage and asserted: “You know how they
always sing ‘Happy Birthday’ at birthday parties?
Isn’t that pathetic! It is
always awful. The problem is that
there is never anyone who can get them off on the right tone.
That’s the problem. We need
someone to set the right tone. I
think we may have found just the right tone-setter for tonight.”
At that point Barack Obama walked in from stage right and everyone broke
into a chorus of “Happy Birthday.”
It was a spectacular climax to an equally spectacular evening.
Then the president joined his wife, the Kennedy’s, and the Kerry’s in the
Presidential Box for the group finale.
After the finale, all of the VIP guests were invited back
to private reception on the second floor.
Teddy and Vicki were sitting in a small ante room to protect him from the
overwhelming crowd. It was an
incredible group that included all of the stars of the evening including Bill
Cosby, actress Lauren Bacall, Broadway stars Bernadette Peters and Brian Stokes
Mitchell, opera singers Denyce Graves and Frederica von Stade, singer James
Taylor, and Caroline Kennedy.
Kennedy at my Inaugural
I have so many great memories of the Senator.
I will never forget when Teddy stepped on the stage at my inauguration in
Boston’s Symphony Hall, looked at Governor
Mitt Romney, and blurted out that “anybody
who could get Teddy Kennedy
and Mitt Romney on the same stage must be
something special.” Of course
Mitt had run against Teddy in his previous Senatorial election campaign.
It was a tough campaign, but in the end Teddy won by a large margin.
He trumped that line when he then turned to me and said that “it
is so good to share the stage with a President that I agree with!”
Even my two oldest daughters, Erika
and Gretchen, had come to know and love him.
They both called me (from Florida and Wisconsin) on morning of his death
to express their sorrow. Erika
actually awakened me to the news.
She even texted me from Florida saying “Hey
Dad, So sorry to hear about Kennedy. One of the best warriors for the poor and
voiceless out there.” I
“borrowed” her phrase for my own public statement!
One of my favorite pictures shows my daughters sitting on either side of
Teddy at the Boston Pops - in intense conversation –lobbying him on
environmental issues. Of course, he
more than held his own and loved every minute of it.
The entire Wilson family was missing Teddy Kennedy and
our thoughts and prayers were with Vickie and the family.
Kennedy Funeral
Early that morning I wrote my own statement to be given to
the press and emailed it to Vice President Bob Connolly
and his staff:
The nation has lost
one of its greatest leaders and the University of Massachusetts has lost one of
its greatest friends. We are not
alone, because Edward M. Kennedy
was a great friend to all of those causes
in which he believed. I was honored
to present the Senator with the President’s Medal, the highest honor of the
University of Massachusetts, in 2005.
He was a friend of education and a "warrior for the poor and voiceless."
Senator Kennedy
will always be in the hearts and minds of
the people of the University.
We are honored that he and his family
chose, during his lifetime, to site at the University a lasting and permanent
legacy to his life’s work in the Senate.
The Edward M. Kennedy
Institute for the Study of the Senate at
UMass Boston will ensure that his legacy of leadership, public service, and
compassion will be remembered and understood and also that it will continue
through the aspirations of our young citizens and their continuing work to
demonstrate concern for those who are in our care and to advance hope for all.
That is what education is all about.
No one understood that better than Senator Kennedy
.
Our sympathies are with the entire Kennedy family.
During the funeral week, I met so many who told me similar
stories of personal kindnesses from Teddy.
That was Teddy. He made us
all feel as if we were close friends.
The most remarkable aspect of this very bright, witty, and
incredibly hard working man was the fact that he never quit acting as if he
needed to work harder than anyone else and that he loved the day to day
conversation of retail politics.
Every tribute to him on the news featured stories about his personal calls,
often late at night, to people who were completely surprised when he called.
Looking back at that funeral weekend, I marvel at just how
much one could learn about life, love, work, redemption, family, failure,
recovery, persistence, and almost any other aspect of the human condition.
It was the closest thing to a medieval morality play that I could ever
imagine. For me it began when Chancellor Keith Motley and
I stood in the middle of the campus drive on Thursday evening to greet the
Senator's family motorcade as it entered campus and then circled to the Kennedy
Library.
As we saluted their entry, the family rolled down the windows of the
limos and leaned out to wave to us. We then joined the family and staff at the
library for a brief devotional and rosary before they opened the doors to the
public who began filing in to pay their respects to the family and view the
Senator's flag draped coffin. We
left there at about 8 pm, but learned later that people kept coming until
approximately 2:30 am. When we left,
the line of mourners snaked throughout the parking lot.
Although the mourners were waiting many hours to enter, there was no
complaining. Later that evening the
family came out and walked up and down the lines greeting everyone.
On Friday evening we were invited to the Celebration of
Life with family and friends. In
many ways this most resembled Teddy's Annual Birthday parties that were held in
the same room each year. The only
thing missing was Teddy sitting on the floor at the end of the party, leading in
song those of us who remained. Joe
Kennedyopened the speaking program with a
very beautiful tribute to Teddy. The
list of speakers was long, but no one seemed to mind a bit.
Even Joe Biden did not cause the crowd to become restless!
Senator McCain's tribute to his friend included an anecdote
about the time he and Teddy had come into the chamber to find two younger
members engaged in a heated argument over an issue that was so small that he
could not even remember it. As
McCain remembered it, they both decided to chastise the young members for not
being civil in debate, but instead Teddy decided that "no fight worth watching
was a fight not worth joining," and so he jumped into the fray.
Not to be outdone, John McCain came right back at him.
Eventually they noticed that the two young members had retreated, perhaps
in fear, and they stopped the argument and went back to being friends.
Senator Orrin Hatch told many stories and was clearly
deeply moved by the loss of his friend.
In the Senate, they called them the "Odd Couple."
How a teetotaling Mormon who neither drank, smoked, or even drank coffee
or soda and an Irish Catholic, who did all of the above and more, could become
friends is indeed hard to understand.
My favorite Hatch story (again so out of character for Hatch) remembered
a time in a late Senate session when Hatch discovered that Teddy was a "little
under the weather." Hatch had wanted
to ask Teddy to come along with him when he gave a speech to a group of Mormon
missionaries later in the year.
Moreover, the missionary leaders had prevailed upon Hatch to ask Teddy to book
Faneuil Hall for the event.
Not wanting to miss the chance he told Teddy about the upcoming speech in Boston
and asked him if he would be willing to come along and speak to the
missionaries. "Done!"
Teddy roared with a wide sweep of his hand.
Emboldened, Hatch asked him if he could arrange for the event to be at
Faneuil Hall. "Done!"
roared Teddy with another expansive sweep of the arm.
The next day Teddy sidled up to Orrin Hatch and asked him "did
I really agree to speak to a group of Mormon missionaries in Boston?"
"Yes," Hatch replied.
"And, did I really agree to arrange
for Faneuil Hall?" he continued with trepidation.
"Yes," Hatch replied a second
time. And then Teddy paused a
bit before looking at him warily and asking "is
there anything else that I agreed to?"
Of course Teddy did book Faneuil Hall and did speak to the missionaries.
He was a great hit.
With singing and endless stories from his many friends, it
was the kind of evening that Teddy would have loved.
We stayed over in town at the Colonnade Hotel since it was
late by the time we left. Because we
were sharing the hotel with one of the past Presidents, two of the floors were
closed. Getting back to the
hotel was quite a challenge, since the President and past Presidents were all
staying in the hotels lining Huntington Ave there in the Back Bay.
They closed Huntington Avenue to all traffic.
In order to get to the hotel, I had to navigate a series of back alleys
that eventually brought me on to Huntington behind the police barricades, I then
drove about a hundred yards -the wrong way! down Huntington Avenue to get to the
hotel garage entrance. I already had a pass key, so I was able to enter.
Judi and I were most relieved that no one shot at us.
At about midnight we stopped into the hotel restaurant for
a glass of wine and bite to eat.
Sitting at the bar next to us was a nice young couple who were clearly in awe of
the events surrounding them and also slightly confused, since they were not in
the know. After we had a glass
of wine and brought them up to speed, the woman asked me "are you the President
of UMass?" She had seen me on TV.
I confessed to that transgression.
She then enthusiastically regaled me with the stories of her days at
UMass and how great the experience had been and what she was now doing with her
life. That is why I love my job.
We felt that we had to be at the church before 8 am to
navigate the security arrangements and get a reasonable seat.
As it turned out, we were very correct about that.
Worse yet, the remnants of Hurricane Dan hit Boston with a vengeance and
combined with two other storms coming from the west and south.
The trek to the Church was brutal because of weather, traffic, and
security. As it happened, I sat just
behind the parents of the young girl, Rebecca Hart, who Vicki had asked us to
help so long ago. That was the time that
Teddy called to say thank you, but began the conversation by telling me that “You
have made my marital life so much better that I just wanted to call and thank
you.” Alma and Brian Hart proudly told me that Rebecca was in her senior
year and that she was on the Dean's list at the Isenberg School of Management.
The Harts were the family that had appealed to the Senator to get the
U.S. Government to supply more and better body armor to the troops.
That had been a major crusade for Teddy, and he had made a lot of
progress. The icing on the cake was that their younger daughter, Elizabeth, had
enrolled at UMass Lowell and was doing very well there too.
Those are the stories that we all love to hear.
Bill Russell, the Celtic
great, and his daughter sat down next to us.
He and I had played golf together in the Julius Erving(Dr. J) fundraiser for UMass.
He was hilarious. If he had not been
such a great basketball player, he could have been a stand-up comedian.
Bill had a reputation (entirely undeserved in my opinion) of being rather
difficult. I found him to be
delightful. However, it was true
that he would never sign autographs, even when young children would come up and
ask. At one point during our golf
round, a teenager asked for his autograph.
Rather brusquely, he said "I don't
sign autographs." And then he
must have noticed how devastated the fellow looked, and he reached out to him,
put his arm around him and said "But, let's take a picture together.
That will be even better."
The look of devastation immediately gave way to a beaming smile.
At the funeral, Bill was looking so cramped in the pew that I suggested
that we try to find him a seat in one of the rows with more legroom.
"I'm all right, Jack," he
replied. "I knew what I was signing up for."
He then told me about his flight on the red eye in from California the
previous evening. He and his
daughter had come directly to the church.
He went a long way back with Teddy and was actually out campaigning for
Teddy when Teddy's plane crashed. He
felt that compared to what Teddy had endured in life, a red eye and cramped pew
were nothing.
Every speaker at the funeral was superb, but Teddy Jr. was
more than superb. I have never heard
a better speech -delivered with passion and emotion that had us all on the edge
of our seats. Two stories made the
greatest impression on me. One told
of an evening when the father and son were out on the water practicing sailing
maneuvers to prepare for an upcoming race.
Late in the day, Teddy Jr. noticed that all the other sailors who had
been out there practicing had gone back to port.
They were the only boat left on the water.
He pointed that out to his father, who replied that the other sailors
were smarter than they were and more experienced, but that the two of them would
work harder and be better prepared.
That is how they planned to win the race.
Creation of The Edward M. Kennedy Institute
After Senator Kennedy's
death we began to execute the plans for the Edward M. Kennedy Center
for the Study of the Senate.
Since we had been discussing this with him and his colleagues since 2003, the
planning moved forward quite quickly.
From the beginning Teddy was driven by a deep love for the Senate and the
role it had played in American History.
He wanted the Institute to be an educational facility which would provide
experiences for visitors, students, and scholars from anywhere in the world.
This would be the place that anyone could come and study and learn the
history of the Senate and the effect on our country and the world.
The University was to be a partner with the Edward M
Kennedy Institute. This partnership
was planned to include physical classrooms, educational programs, and job
opportunities, as well as professional opportunities for faculty.
We signed a memorandum of understanding with the Edward M Kennedy
Institute (EMKI) that covered the transfer of the land between the UMass Boston
Campus and the Kennedy Library.
It also provided for the University to manage a portion of the EMKI
endowment and partner with the EMKI in educational programs.
The UMass Building Authority agreed to undertake the
management of the construction of the EMKI as well as to finance it with our
bonding capability. That would all
be backed up with over $125 million that Board member and local leader Jack
Connors
had raised as chair of the finance
committee. Thus there was little
financial risk for the University.
We would build the building and lease it to the EMKI, which would be responsible
for the debt service on the building.
Jack Connors, a retired
advertising executive and formidable fundraiser had agreed to lead the
fundraising for the EMKI, and he also worked with a blue ribbon group of
community leaders to raise the funds for the Institute.
Peter Meade, a former
Executive Vice President of Blue Cross Blue Shield and active Democratic Party
leader was selected as the executive director of the new Institute.
Peter had also served as the Chair of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy
Greenway Conservancy, chair of Emerson College Board of Trustees,
President and CEO of The New England Council, Vice President at Warner Amex
Cable Communications, WBZ Radio commentator, and Co-chairman of the MassINC
Board of Directors.
A Board of Trustees
was
formed that included Peter, Nick Littlefield,
Jack Connors
, Barbara Souliotis, Fred Siegel, Keith Motley
, Ranny Cooper,
and me. Lee Fentress served
as the chair. While Vicki Kennedy was
not a member from the beginning, she joined the Board in 2010 and quickly became
a key leader of the project.
Caroline Kennedy's husband Ed Schlossbergwas not
a member of the board, but he was very active in the selection of the architect,
Rafael Viñoly and
in the design of the building itself.
When Viñoly
brought his first design to the Board, we were all struck by the beauty and
simplicity of the design, but we were also shocked to notice that his design
spilled over onto land owned by the John F. Kennedy Library,
the Massachusetts Archives, and the University.
It also infringed on a small area of wetlands.
When someone intemperately mentioned these facts to the architect, he
seemed taken aback by the question and noted that this was the best design for
the site and that we should figure out the trivia details like land ownership
for ourselves. He was an artist!
He could not be constrained by silly things like boundaries!
The design would also require that the Kennedy Library relocate
its air-conditioning chiller to a new site and that it alter its parking
arrangements -especially in regard to bus parking.
None of
these encroachments were appreciated by the owners of the abutting lands.
They all wanted to be helpful, but this was a bit over the top.
Negotiations with the land owners began in earnest, while Ed Schlossbergworked on Viñoly
to
see if some design accommodations could reduce the conflict.
Viñoly himself
was a vision of the artist. He did
the presentation with four pairs of glasses on his person.
He had one pair on the top of his head, one on his eyes, and two hanging
by cords about his neck. I was
somewhat distracted by the challenge of understanding how one could use four
pairs of glasses. I could construct
an argument for three pairs: one for close work, one for distant vision, and the
third for intermediate distances.
But the fourth baffled me.
Eventually a
combination of redesign and negotiation with neighbors led to a viable plan, but
the final arrangements were not complete until after I became the interim
President in 2011.
The design
itself was a combination of a replica (or representation) of the well of the
Senate. This was Teddy's dream that
he had first shared with me in late 2003.
It would be very high tech -with each Senator's desk featuring an
electronic desktop with which the visitor could interact to learn the history of
the Senators who used the desk. For
example, a visitor seeking out Kennedy's desk would learn that Teddy had served
in the Senate and for nearly 47 years and would find that his successors were
Paul Kirk (Interim) and Senator Scott Brown.
His predecessors included his brother Jack as well as Daniel Webster,
John Quincy Adams, Henry Cabot Lodge, and Charles Sumner.
Each Senator's involvement in issues would be presented electronically at
the desk.
Since each
Senator’s desk would work in the same way, the well of the Senate would become
kind of a time traveling machine that would let visitors take the camber to any
time in history and replay the great issues of that era.
Surrounding
the representation of the Well of the Senate was an outer hall that was lined
with LED display device on which continuous presentations were shown of events
in the history of the Senate. A
visitor traveling around that outer ring would follow a timeline of history.
The well of
the Senate itself would contain many video screens that could be used to present
material or even to change the appearance of the Senate well itself.
This was very important to Teddy since no one was allowed to go onto the
Senate floor and he envisioned students being able to come to this replica to
gain an appreciation for how the Senate worked and the history of the United
States as seen through the workings of the Senate.
For example one could find out exactly how each Senator participated in
the Missouri Compromise Debate of 1820.
Senator
Kennedy
also hoped that it could be
arranged so that the Chamber could be configured like the original Senate
Chamber in use from 1810 until 1859 as well as the modern chamber.
During the
design process representatives of the architect contacted officials to obtain
information about the design of the Senate chamber.
To everyone's surprise, this kicked over a hornet's nest.
The Senate officials strenuously objected to any effort to build a
replica of the Senate. They said
that they would not cooperate with the architect and would do everything in
their power to prevent it from being built.
At least part of their reasoning was that non-senators could use this as
a visual backdrop which would imply that they were speaking from the Senate.
Once we had a chance to digest what we were being told, we felt that
perhaps there was less of a problem than had been implied in the original
interaction. In fact, we were not
planning to have an exact replica of the Senate.
We wanted a "representation" of the Senate chamber, but it would be far
from an exact replica and would feature many high tech presentation materials
which would clearly mark this as a representation.
In July of
2010, Lee Fentress, Peter
Meade
, and others met with the Deputy
Staff Director of the Senate Rules Committee to discuss the situation.
The report to the Board indicated that:
She stated that her concerns
emanated from her responsibilities under Rule XXXII of the Standing Rules of the
Senate regarding use of the Senate Chamber, and regulations established under
that Rule which dictate that Senate facilities only be used for official Senate
business and never for “personal use” functions.
We worked hard to convey that,
while our intention is to create a space that has the requisite authenticity to
evoke the experience of being in the Senate Chamber in order to make the
educational programs of the Institute as rich as possible, we want to avoid any
action that would promote the deception that the EMKI Chamber was, in fact, the
actual Senate Chamber or an exact replica. A point we underscored several times
was that from marketing and branding standpoint, we want the EMKI Chamber to be
an easily recognizable component of the Institute itself in order to promote the
work the Institute is designed to carry out."
I quickly
replied to the entire board by email suggesting that: "I
agree with your contention that we should take care not to agree to overly
restrictive rules which would inhibit the mission of the EMKI.
That is why we should take some time to understand the source and nature
of the concerns in order to find ways to allay the concerns without damaging the
mission and programs of the EMKI. If
better communication would create an environment of increased trust and a sense
of collaboration, then that would be the best result."
Less than 40
minutes later Vicki Kennedy
reinforced this point of view with an
email that said; "Jack - I think
you're right on. Do we think I should reach out Chuck Schumer! He's Chair of the
Rules Committee, at least for now. Vicki."
While the
controversy over the design of the Senate representation was a bit unexpected,
the controversy that arose over funding the building with some federal earmarks
was more predictable. Although most
of the funding was being raised from other sources, we did anticipate $40
million or more from federal sources.
The Boston Herald liked to be particularly critical of such earmarks.
They did not disappoint. An
Article by Renee Dudley on April 19 observed: "The
Sunday Herald reported yesterday that taxpayer spending on a shrine being built
to Kennedy in Dorchester has ballooned to $38.3 million since Kennedy’s Aug. 25
death. The money comes from earmarks slipped into a variety of federal agencies
by Sen. John F. Kerry and Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Malden).
The powerful Bay State pols want to boost the total outlay to $68 million
before the end of this year."
In a Herald
Op-Ed, Michael Graham lashed out at the Institute: "The
project itself is entirely useless. Anyone who really needs a building filled
with old white guys pretentiously pondering the importance of the U.S. Senate
can just visit . . . the U.S. Senate.
This is redundancy times 100 - or 102, if the District of Columbia ever
gets two Senate seats. Then there’s the tin-eared arrogance of pushing this
project onto the taxpayers right now." Fortunately, his view appeared
to be of limited appeal.
However, the
board determined that we should make editorial board visits to the Globeand Herald to make
the point that this was intended to be an educational facility and not a shrine.
I was skeptical that we would have much success, but I underestimated
Vicki's ability to charm the editors and explain the project.
While the reporter, Renee Dudley, did her best to be critical, the
editors were far more receptive. In
the end, the Herald did print a far fairer description of the project in the
next few days.
The best
exposition of the plans for the Edward M. Kennedy
Institute came in a Boston Globe
Magazine
profile of Vicki entitled "After Teddy,"
which appeared on August 15, 2010.
Vicki used that interview to advance the cause of the Institute.
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