Simmons remembers President George H.W. Bush as 'class act'
Stonington — At a 2000 campaign event at the Mystic Marriott in Groton, the Secret Service told then-congressional candidate Rob Simmons that former President George H.W. Bush would make some quick remarks and skedaddle.
Simmons introduced Bush to the crowd, and the 41st president and former CIA director, United Nations ambassador and World War II veteran — who'd already spoken at the Coast Guard Academy that day — offered a few remarks on Simmons' behalf.
When Simmons thanked Bush and noted the Secret Service said he'd be on his way, Bush replied, "Well, I haven't had breakfast."
"He sat right down and had breakfast with a whole bunch of people," Simmons, now Stonington first selectman, said in an interview Saturday, a day after Bush's death at age 94. "The audience came up and shook his hand. He was so gracious. When you've been in public life and you've dealt with world leaders, a local guy running for Congress is nothing special. Yet here he was doing a fundraiser for a local guy, stayed through breakfast, met my supporters, posed for a photo with my family. He was a class act."
Simmons' introduction to the Bush family was actually a quarter of a century earlier, through Bush's wife, Barbara. As Bush prepared to serve as chief of the U.S. Liaison Office in China, his wife happened to be studying Chinese in the same class as Simmons for about six weeks at the Foreign Service Institute.
"She was really a lovely person," Simmons said. "She said, 'I don't want to go to Beijing and not be able to say at least hello and how is the weather?' I thought it really showed a real people-to-people interest."
Simmons, a CIA officer for several years, served under Bush after Bush became CIA director in the mid-1970s. He credited Bush for improving the CIA's morale after intensive investigations by the House and Senate following President Richard Nixon's Watergate scandal.
"He stood up for the agency employees who'd been beat up a bit by Congress," Simmons said. "He came in and was a breath of fresh air."
Most of all Simmons appreciated that Bush, who grew up in an educated and "well-to-do household ... had all the values that I think we attribute to the old Yankee Republicans. His war experiences brought him down to earth. He knew how to deal with folks on an open and friendly basis."
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