Took Pictures of Two Presidents

In 1960 at the age of 18 I got my first job as an adult working for a local weekly newspaper called the Observer. I worked there for 11 years and did almost all the jobs there. My favorite job in the early years was taking pictures and writing stories for the newspaper. Today that position is called a photojournalist, back than I was a photographer and writer. I did lots of other things through the years, I eventually became plant manager and finally vice president but I always liked photography the most and continued to do it when I could even when I became vice president.

I met President Nixon three times. The last time I saw him, I arrived early, at a meeting where he was going to speak. He was there early also and when I got there he said hello Joe. I was shocked that the President remembered my name but all politicians of any level have it in there DNA to remember everyone's name. We just stood there like regular guys talking for a few minutes. I don't remember what we talked about, it was just casual conversation.

When I met Johnson there was no conversation with me, he was with Soviet Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin and I was just one of many photographers there.

The Glassboro Summit

"This Day in Diplomacy: U.S.-Soviet Summit at Glassboro, New Jersey. Thirty years ago today President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Prime Minister Aleksei Kosygin and their diplomatic and military advisers met at Glassboro, New Jersey. This impromptu Summit addressed the Arab-Israeli tensions in the Middle East following the Six Day War of June 1967 and took steps toward serious U.S.-Soviet arms limitations and agreement to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other nations. Following an emergency UN Security Council meeting in New York in mid June 1967 to discuss the recently concluded Six Day War, Soviet and American officials hurriedly organized an unplanned Summit meeting between President Johnson and Prime Minister Kosygin. Disagreements between the two sides on the locale for a meeting eventually led to the decision on June 22 to meet at Glassboro State College in New Jersey, exactly mid-way between New York City and Washington. The usual elaborate Summit preparations were telescoped into just a few hours. The surprised President of Glassboro State was abruptly moved out of his home, which became the site for the two days of heads of government meetings. President Johnson and Prime Minister Kosygin and their translators met in the study while Secretary of State Rusk, Secretary of Defense McNamara, Soviet Foreign Minister  Andrew Gromyko, and Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin cooled their heels for long hours in the small living room. 

The pictures are not mine, they are from Google, I might have mine in one of my boxes stored away. They met in 1967 in Glassboro, I don't think I was living in Pitman when they met but a little later Linda and I bought a house that was only about a mile from where they met in the neighboring town of Pitman.