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| President Bush staged his administration's crowning
event at Rice. |
| 1990 Economic Summit of Industrialized Nations held
its plenary sessions and ceremonial events on campus |
| The location for the annual Economic Summit of Industrialized
Nations rotates among the seven nations taking part. In July, 1990, it was the
United States' turn, and Houston was a favored location as the President's home
town. It remained for the Bush staff to secure a venue, within Houston, which would
serve as a fittingly aesthetic showplace for the conduct of the plenary meeting sessions
and the official ceremonies. Both President Bush and his Secretary of State, James
A. Baker, had ties to Rice: the President as a former adjunct professor of
administration, and Mr. Baker, as a grandson of James Addison Baker, one of the
university's founders and chairman of its Board of Trustees for the first fifty years of
its existence. So the choice of Rice was a natural, and the old Institute campus
performed splendidly. |
| A book could be written (and has been) about
the preparation and carrying on of the event--the construction of conference tables,
rearrangement of plantings, construction of platforms, general sprucing up, etc., etc.,
that was necessary to be carried out, as well as the actually unfolding of ceremonies and
meetings. |
 President Bush, and Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher of Great
Britain, Francois Mitterand of France, Helmut Kohl of Germany, Brian
Mulroney of Canada, Giulio Andreotti of Italy, and Toshiki Kaifu of Japan, along with
European Community President Jacques Delors, presided over the conference. The
delegations, most of whom had visions of Texas as a treeless, arid, rural place with
tumbleweeds rolling in the streets, marveled at the bucolic, verdant beauty of the Rice
campus. Security being as it was, the campus was tightly sealed, and the world
leaders, with their staff members and a few selected members of the media, had the run of
the campus like summer school attendees. |
| Since its founding in 1911, Rice has always comprised the
premier educational and cultural institution of Houston, now the nation's
fourth-largest city. Its sterling performance as host venue of the 1990 Economic
Summit only served to cement that position further, as well as show the world what a
beautiful garden the Texas Gulf Coast can turn out to be. |
|
 President Bush delivers opening address amid ruffles and
flourishes in front of Lovett Hall |
|
 Secretary of State Baker goes on CNN with Robert Novak and
Wolf Blitzer. (Yes, it was hot.) |
For an excellent report on the 1990 Economic Summit, see John
C. Boles, Rice University and the 1990 Summit of Industrialized Nations (Rice
University Press, 1991) , from which the above photos were taken. |
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