Pittsburgh man played role in planning Bush’s funeral
To the world, it might appear plans for Wednesday’s meticulously choreographed state funeral for the late President George H.W. Bush came together in a matter of days. In reality, the multiday event that began with the former commander-in-chief’s arrival in a flag-draped casket from his home in Houston at Joint Base Andrews on Monday had been in the works for decades.
A detailed proposal for presidential state funerals actually begins very early in each president’s term, said Chris Edwards, who worked in the George W. Bush White House from 2002 to 2007 before leaving Washington, D.C., to go into the family business in Pittsburgh. Now CEO of The Milk Shake Factory, the 41-year-old was responsible for coordinating all of the media logistics as part of the state funeral staff this past week.
He got word of the president’s death around midnight on Friday while in New York City. He was on a train bound for D.C. six hours later and after pulling into Union Station, worked 20 hours a day for the next five days preparing for the funeral on Dec. 5. It wouldn’t be his first state funeral: having worked in the White House, he’d been involved in one capacity or another in planning Ronald Reagan’s and Gerald Ford’s funerals.
“But it hit very close to home, because I’d worked for the Bush family,” he said.
His siblings Mark Edwards and Dana Manatos, who also had jobs at the White House during the George W. Bush administration, also were part of the team.
When a person becomes president, Mr. Edwards said, there are meetings early on between staff members and the Military District of Washington, one of 19 major commands of the Army that orchestrates and sets the schedule for the event. Available to only a precious few and steeped deep in tradition, state funerals must follow certain protocols. As such, the ceremonial formalities must be planned far in advance.
Along with 21-gun salutes and flag-draped caskets, most former presidents lie in state on top of the Lincoln Catafalque in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda to allow the public to pay their respects. There also traditionally is a national funeral service, with a religious theme.
Yet presidents have private lives, too. And so they and those closest to them often add personal touches that illustrate something about their character or how they want to be remembered. In a nod to his military service as a pilot in World War II, President Bush wore gray socks adorned with jets flying in formation while he lay in state at the Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday.
He also helped choose whom he wanted to deliver eulogies and offer speeches at the funeral, weighed in on which songs and anthems were to be played (and when) and helped determine the guest lists, said Mr. Edwards.
It’s a plan that evolves and ramps up over time, he said, as presidents age and death becomes closer.
One last-minute addition was having a group of sailors from the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush onsite when Air Force One arrived at Joint Base Andrews with the late president’s casket on Monday.
You could have heard a pin drop after the plane made its final approach. “You could just feel the gravity of it,” he said.
Originally, the sailors were going to be off to the side. They ended up moving them out onto the tarmac so they could be in position to salute the casket as it passed. That created a really special moment for the family, Mr. Edwards said.
But what really made this carefully orchestrated event stand out, he said, were the unscripted moments no one could plan for: Former U.S. Sen. Bob Dole being helped out of his wheelchair at the Capitol Rotunda to give the president a final salute; his service dog, Sully, lying down in front of the casket; and former President George W. Bush breaking down in tears at the end of his emotional eulogy.
“It honored him in the way he was meant to be honored,” Mr. Edwards said. “He got the sendoff he deserved.”
A business major at Duquesne University, Mr. Edwards volunteered for the younger Bush’s presidential campaign in Pittsburgh and also worked on his inauguration committee after graduating in 2000. His first job was in the Office of the Chief of Protocol for the Department of State, as a liaison to the international community.
In 2002, he moved to the White House, where he served as special assistant to the president and director of press advance. Responsible for arranging all White House media operations domestically and internationally, he got to travel to more than 70 countries on Air Force One and also work on three presidential campaigns.