‘First gentleman’ adjusts to firsts
OLYMPIA – Sometimes late at night, when Mike Gregoire is having trouble sleeping, he goes downstairs and pulls an old history book down from the bookshelves.
Gregoire long has been a history buff, but now he’s making it. He’s the first “first gentleman” in Washington state history. He’s the husband of Gov. Christine Gregoire.
“We’re talking about new terrain,” Mike Gregoire said Friday in an interview at the couple’s new home, the governor’s mansion.
Since before statehood, Washington has had first ladies. The most recent first lady, Mona Lee Locke, lent her fame and support to children’s reading programs and a project to recycle old computers for students. She was a graceful figure at Gov. Gary Locke’s side during his State of the State speeches and at social functions. (In April, she plans to return to TV news as an anchor for Seattle’s KIRO.)
Less than two weeks after his wife was sworn in as governor, Mike Gregoire still is feeling his way around both the mansion and his new role. Unlike his wife – state attorney general for the past dozen years – he’s not a politician. But it’s clear the former Army lieutenant plans to be an outspoken advocate for veterans.
He already has scheduled visits to the Spokane Veterans Home and Spokane’s Veterans Affairs medical center in February, as well as to several Puget Sound facilities. He’s also on the governor’s Veterans Affairs Advisory Committee.
“We don’t just go out and fly the flag,” he said. “We’re going to get out there and work on these issues.”
Mike Gregoire was born in Everett in 1945. His father was a cabinet maker turned union carpenter; his mother was a teacher for 35 years. Both came from farms in North Dakota. Gregoire graduated from Everett High School, where he was a football linebacker and guard.
He then went to the University of Washington, graduating with a degree in history and a teaching certificate. The day of his last final exam, he got his Army draft notice. He reported for duty in June 1968.
He was commissioned a lieutenant in the air defense artillery, where he trained with Vulcan machine guns and surface-to-air Chaparral missiles. Then it was off to Fort Benning, Ga., where in 1970 he was reassigned as an infantry officer.
“At Benning, they told me ‘Vietnamization isn’t working,’ ” he said. And it wasn’t. The American effort to gradually disengage and turn the fighting over to South Vietnamese troops was a face-saving disaster that would eventually end with the 1975 fall of Saigon.
Mike Gregoire was shipped out to convoy duty with IV Corps in the Mekong Delta, making runs from Ca Mau – near the tip of the delta – to Rach Gia, closer to the Cambodian border.”I got a good taste of the full deep delta,” Gregoire said.
Only small rigs could get through on the narrow roads and temporary bridges. His platoon armored deuce-and-a-half trucks, outfitted them with twin M-60 machine guns, and would roar down the roads, hoping they didn’t get shot at or blasted by roadside mines en route. What’s going on now in Iraq, he said, brings back many memories.
“It’s a part of me that will always be there,” he said. “You know, some people say forget it and move on. No. You live with it.”
After Vietnam, he traveled in Europe, then came back home to look for a teaching job. But openings were scarce. He found a job in Everett as a welfare fraud investigator for the state.
“That’s where I met Chris,” he said.
Chris O’Grady had also received a teaching certificate, been unable to find a teaching job and gone to work for the state. They worked in a close-knit office made up largely of young people. They didn’t start dating until they’d known each other for more than 18 months.
“We really got to know each other as a person,” he said. “She was very intense, very professional. She was always supercharged.”
Christine decided to go to law school, and a family friend in Moses Lake offered to pay the bill. She moved to Spokane to go to Gonzaga University, and the couple’s relationship turned into a long-distance one, with the Cascades in the middle. She’d take a bus to Everett to visit him; he’d drive his orange Opel to see her in Spokane. After another year, they married and moved into an apartment on Spokane’s South Riverton Avenue. They eventually bought their first house, on South Hogan Street, and had the first of their two daughters, Courtney. They bought a little cabin on Hayden Lake, which remains a summer family refuge.
After several years in Spokane, the state promoted Christine Gregoire. The family moved to Olympia, where they’ve lived for the past two decades.
On Jan. 12, Gov. Gregoire was sworn in. She and Mike moved into the brick governor’s mansion, watched over by state troopers in guardhouses.
In some ways, living in the 97-year-old mansion is like living in a museum. Half the house is open to public tours, with rooms of antique furniture, Asian china, twin pianos, Czech crystal chandeliers and sterling silver dinnerware. The small library where Mike Gregoire spends sleepless hours includes a guest book from the 1940s. Among the entries: “Harry Truman, Independence, Mo.”
The family quarters, off-limits to tours, are more modern and livable. But it’s still an adjustment, Mike Gregoire said. The first time the family tried to light a fire in a fireplace – unused for years – smoke filled the room and triggered an alarm that brought the fire department. For the past 20 years, the family’s lived in a home in Olympia’s South Bay area, surrounded by fruit trees and gardens and raspberries. They’re keeping the home, but Gregoire said he hopes to plant tomatoes and some vegetables in a garden on the mansion grounds. He likes to cook, and said he’s getting used to the kitchen.
“When she comes home from a long, long day, I’m going to have a meal ready,” he said.
Similarly, life as the governor and governor’s spouse has been an adjustment. They’re now protected by troopers around the clock, and, for Christine especially, face many more demands on their time. It’s harder to find time for friends, Mike said.
There’s even been some bemusement in protocol-heavy Olympia over what exactly to call Mike Gregoire. First spouse? First guy? He’s officially the “first gentleman,” but he’s also a down-to-earth, poker-playing guy, which led the governor to jokingly suggest the title “First Mike.”
Christine Gregoire has long been powerful and well-known in Olympia. She was the director of the state Department of Ecology, then attorney general for 12 years. Now she’s the governor. She’s long earned more money than Mike. But Mike, who retired in 2003, said he’s never felt threatened or insecure over his wife’s success.
“I know Chris like nobody else knows her,” he said. “We know our strengths and our weaknesses and we share everything. I know that there are traditional roles and that it’s difficult for a lot of people. But we’ve been very fortunate.”
In trying to explain their roles now, he referred to his wife as “the governor.” Then he caught himself and grinned.
“You know,” he said, “it’s ‘Chris’ and ‘Mike’ between us.”